The Pathology of the Mental Illness Industry

The mental illness industry, which informs medicine and the larger culture, pathologizes natural and normal responses to abnormal lived experiences. It focuses on the individual as the source of their own distress, insisting they need to simply stop having those feelings, change their thoughts, and fix their brain chemicals with forever pills. Not only is this shame-based and pathologizing, it neglects to address the unmet core biological needs that drive the distress.

Ours is a shame-based and pathologizing culture, thanks to the domination hierarchy that fosters the insatiable greed of the few at the top and chronically stresses and traumatizes the rest of us. The mental illness industry is a key enforcer of the hierarchy that is killing us and our planet for the purpose of a few fat wallets.

Fortunately, the field of Interpersonal Neurobiology (IPNB) offers a non pathologizing, shame-busting, humane, and actual scientific framework for understanding human behavior/ health/ mental health/ well-being/ homeostasis. When we understand the basics of our neurobiology, just a few concepts and terms, we are liberated from this oppressive dogma and hold the key to healing at the individual and collective levels. Liberation.

About Shay Seaborne, CPTSD

Former tall ship sailor turned trauma awareness activist-artist Shay Seaborne, CPTSD has studied the neurobiology of fear / trauma /PTSD since 2015. She writes, speaks, teaches, and makes art to convey her experiences as well as her understanding of the neurobiology of fear, trauma theory, and principles of trauma recovery. A native of Northern Virginia, Shay settled in Delaware to sail KALMAR NYCKEL, the state’s tall ship. She wishes everyone could recognize PTSD is not a mental health problem, but a neurophysiological condition rooted in dysregulation, our mainstream culture is neuro-negative, and we need to understand we can heal ourselves and each other through awareness, understanding, and safe connection.

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2 Responses to The Pathology of the Mental Illness Industry

L Jensen says:

June 7, 2025 at 6:33 am

Thank you for your valuable work doesnt hardly feel adequate. I believe wth all my heart you have given the answers that will save my 21 yr old granddaughters life and her beautiful bright brain! I was looking for a miracle to break through to her mom who’s father and my granddaughters grandfather is pushing to have my granddaughter placed on a 72 hr psych eval hold and ive been getting calls since my granddaughter showed up at my home seemingly in and out of some kind of for lack if a better explanation psychosis tgat the family from which im mostly alienated insists is due to bipolar disorder according to my childrens father who isnt a doctor but made the diagnosis after my granddaughter showed up a year ago at my home suicidal telling me she has been telling her famiky she needs help but …they dont hear me grandma. And after onky a few conversations with her mom i realised it was true and not only that but my daughter began using terms such as ” episode ” . And “peaked “. Then i asked her so she had had a diagnodis what is it? Has she been to a doctor? No. When was her last pysical ? I asked my daughter. She blocked me! Thats no surprise. Their father has npd and i dared to leave him long b

- Shay Seaborne, CPTSD – Wilmington, DE – Shay Seaborne CPTSD teaches Relational Neuroscience for stress reduction, trauma recovery, and community building. Shay has studied the neurobiology of fear / trauma /PTSD since 2014 and Interpersonal Neurobiology (IPNB) since 2019. They write, speak, teach, and make art to convey their experiences as well as their understanding of the neurobiology of fear, trauma theory, Interpersonal Neurobiology concepts, and principles of trauma recovery. A native of Northern Virginia, Shay settled in Delaware to sail KALMAR NYCKEL, the state’s tall ship. They wish everyone could recognize that "mental health problems" are symptoms of dysregulation, our mainstream culture is neuro-negative, and we can heal ourselves and each other through awareness, understanding, and safe connection.
  
  Shay Seaborne, CPTSD says:
  
  July 5, 2025 at 4:52 pm
  
  Thank you for sharing this complex and disturbing story. I’m sorry your granddaughter has had to deal with so much. She’s very lucky to have you on her side. I hope things have gone much better for her and she is recovering under your loving care.