David Mielke - Educating in the era of the psychiatric diagnosis
Mad in America: Rethinking Mental Health
Mad in America
4.7 • 212 Ratings
🗓️ 21 October 2017
⏱️ 52 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This week we interview David Mielke. David is a psychology graduate and teacher in a California high school who has become increasingly concerned about the number of children that he teaches that have a psychiatric diagnosis and how many are on psychiatric drugs.
In this interview, we discuss David's experiences as an educator and how teachers can empower students to have more confidence in themselves.
In the episode we discuss:
- How David studied psychology and then came to be a teacher at Culver City High School in California.
- How an experience witnessing electroshock therapy made an indelible mark on his approach to educating.
- How David knew from interacting with his students that most often their struggles were because of difficult circumstances such as issues at home rather than brain diseases in need of diagnosis.
- How David has witnessed many of his students have internalised their diagnostic labels.
- The relationship between a psychiatric diagnosis and learned helplessness.
- The tensions that may arise between school policies and guidance, teachers and parents when a psychiatric diagnosis is involved.
- The power inherent in psychotherapy to connect with and support people in difficulty.
To get in touch with us email: podcasts@madinamerica.com
© Mad in America 2017
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to the Mad in America podcast, your source for science, psychiatry and social justice. |
| 0:13.5 | Hello, this is James, and welcome to the Mad in America podcast. |
| 0:17.2 | Thank you for listening in, and thank you for all of your feedback and support so far. |
| 0:21.7 | This week we have an interview with David Milkey. |
| 0:24.6 | David is a psychology graduate and teacher in a California high school |
| 0:28.5 | who has become increasingly concerned about the number of children that he teaches |
| 0:32.5 | that have a psychiatric diagnosis and how many are on psychiatric drugs. |
| 0:37.3 | In this interview we discussed David's experiences as an educator and how many are on psychiatric drugs. In this interview, we discussed David's experiences as an educator |
| 0:40.8 | and how teachers can empower students to have more confidence in themselves. |
| 0:45.5 | David, thank you so much for talking with me today for the podcast. |
| 0:49.1 | I wanted to start by asking about you and what led to your interest in psychology and then on to teaching. |
| 0:55.4 | Well, yes, well, James, first let me thank you for inviting me. |
| 0:59.2 | I think the work you're doing is extremely important and I feel very privileged to be a part of it today. |
| 1:07.1 | My background, I'm from Buffalo, New York, middle class family, but a family of helpers. |
| 1:13.9 | My father was a Presbyterian minister. |
| 1:17.8 | My mother, before she stopped work, to raise four kids, was a school psychologist. |
| 1:22.7 | And so it was part of our family culture, not only to find work as adults that was meaningful, |
| 1:29.9 | but to find work where we were helping others. |
| 1:33.2 | And so I think it was either in the family culture or in the DNA, |
| 1:38.0 | that I was going to end up doing something in that arena. |
| 1:41.9 | And so when I went to college, I majored in psychology, but I'd always |
| 1:46.9 | really been interested in kids. So at the same time, I prepared for a teaching career. And then |
... |
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