Tag Archives: Behavioral Health

Why the Ego, Id, and Superego Do Not Apply

The ego, id, and superego are abstract inventions, not observable processes. What can be studied are phenomena such as attachment, defense mechanisms, resilience, meaning-making, and identity processes. These are evident in behavior, physiology, relationship patterns, and lived experiences. The psychological … Continue reading

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The Therapist’s Mirror: How Lack of Self-Awareness Can Dysregulate Clients

A therapist who lacks the capacity for self-awareness and attunement may, at best, provide surface-level support, but they’re also likely to cause harm, especially to trauma survivors. Without the ability to co-regulate and deeply connect with their clients’ internal states, … Continue reading

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From Trigger to Transformation: How Creative Acts Can Shift the Nervous System’s Response

This spring, a patch of red sprouts emerged in my garden. To someone else, they might have looked intriguing or even beautiful. But for me, their appearance instantly triggered an unwanted body memory from childhood trauma. At that moment, my … Continue reading

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Dear Doctor: I Have Lots of Therapists. Including You.

Your Presence Is the Treatment. Or the Harm. It is striking how many doctors, especially pain specialists, have doubly verified that I have a good therapist. Or a therapist. That I’m “in mental health care.” I understand why they ask. … Continue reading

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The “Mental Illness” Frame Is the Problem. Interpersonal Neurobiology Changes Everything

The mental illness industry frames mental health in terms of individual pathology, diagnosis, and personal responsibility. It focuses on what’s wrong with a person: what disorder they might have, what cognitive distortions they carry, what behaviors need changing. It tends … Continue reading

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The Most Predatory Systems in America

In America today, several systems are notoriously predatory because they extract resources–money, labor, health, or dignity–from people without providing safety, care, or fairness in return. These systems often target the most vulnerable while shielding those with wealth and power. Here … Continue reading

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How SEIU F***** Over Trauma Survivors

Several years ago, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) put up a website saying that they were looking for stories from people who had been gaslit, threatened, and otherwise abused by Universal Health Services (UHS), America’s largest psychiatric hospital chain. … Continue reading

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Standard Treatment Is Abuse: What ChristianaCare Taught Me About Mental Health “Care”

It’s been seven years since a ChristianaCare physician lied, gaslit, and coerced me into agreeing to psychiatric hospitalization. Here, I share the grievance I filed with ChristianaCare’s Patient and Family Relations department two years later. As the system continued to … Continue reading

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ChristianaCare Funneled Me to the Cuckoo’s Nest

On this day in 2018, I informed ChristianaCare hospital intern Dr. Crystal Kucuk through the patient portal that Lexapro she had prescribed a few weeks earlier, “makes me very drowsy and lethargic. When I take it in the morning, I … Continue reading

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The False Claims Of Psychology

Psychology claims to be a science, but much of its methodology does not meet the rigor found in fields that study observable, measurable, and consistently reproducible phenomena. While psychology does use systematic methods, those methods often fail to account for … Continue reading

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