Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Eric Turkheimer @ent3c.bsky.social · 1d

Haven't posted much lately-- busy. One of my Substack projects is republishing my chapters from the Kendler and Parnas series on the philosophy of psychiatry. The books are expensive and hard to find. This is, "The Hard Question in Psychiatric Nosology." /1 @awaisaftab.bsky.social

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Awais Aftab @awaisaftab.bsky.social · 2d

Karl Jaspers Award is given for the best unpublished paper in the area of philosophy of psychiatry by a trainee in the disciplines of philosophy, psychiatry, or psychology.

Deadline for submission for 2025 Karl Jaspers Award is Sunday, December 7, 2025

aapp.press.jhu.edu/jaspers

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Awais Aftab @awaisaftab.bsky.social · 4d

In Defense of Disordered Grief

No, grief has not been given an expiration date

www.psychiatrymargins.com/p/in-defense...

In Defense of Disordered Grief

No, grief has not been given an expiration date

www.psychiatrymargins.com

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Robert Chapman @drrobertchapman.bsky.social · 5d

Experiences of transphobia over the past year have made me sometimes regret coming out as nonbinary for the first time. I've long received hatemail and death threats for being a public-ish trans person, but that wasn't so bad and it never made me regret being out. Things are getting so much worse.

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Awais Aftab @awaisaftab.bsky.social · 6d

The link in my post should be a gift link as well (at least that’s what I think I posted!)

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Awais Aftab @awaisaftab.bsky.social · 7d

Grateful to see this layered and multifaceted discussion in the @nytimes.com by @ellenbarry.bsky.social about recent work by @alanlevinovitz.bsky.social and me on the Rumpelstiltskin effect (the therapeutic relief experienced on receiving a diagnosis)

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/03/s...

Autism, A.D.H.D., Anxiety: Can a Diagnosis Make You Better?

www.nytimes.com

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Awais Aftab @awaisaftab.bsky.social · 8d

Are We All Just Having 'Understandable Human Reactions'? — Jesse Meadows

“Sami Timimi's new book paints neurodivergent and trans people as dupes of neoliberalism”

www.sluggish.xyz/p/are-we-all...

Are We All Just Having 'Understandable Human Reactions'?

Sami Timimi's new book paints neurodivergent and trans people as dupes of neoliberalism

www.sluggish.xyz

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Awais Aftab @awaisaftab.bsky.social · 11d

🙏🏻

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Nicole Rust @nicolecrust.bsky.social · 12d

Really insightful (once again). Thank you for it. I appreciate your reframe on this topic, embracing neurodiversity while also explaining in a non-dismissive way the rationale behind those that opt for treatment.

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Awais Aftab @awaisaftab.bsky.social · 13d

ADHD, Boredom Proneness, and the Pills That Make Tedium Tolerable

www.psychiatrymargins.com/p/adhd-bored...

ADHD, Boredom Proneness, and the Pills That Make Tedium Tolerable

Exploring the relationship between ADHD and boredom

www.psychiatrymargins.com

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Konrad Banicki @castalia1981.bsky.social · 15d

I am very excited about the upcoming seventh edition of the Institute of Applied Psychology Interdisciplinary Series (IAPIS, ips.uj.edu.pl/nauka/iapis/... & @jagiellonskiuni.bsky.social)

To register for the first talk use: forms.gle/GcnHuj3rhamH...

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Awais Aftab @awaisaftab.bsky.social · 17d

Congrats! ☺️

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Awais Aftab @awaisaftab.bsky.social · 17d

Reposting for the Monday crowd 👇🏽

Awais Aftab @awaisaftab.bsky.social · 20d

Rewriting the Grand Plan of Clinical Neuroscience

A Review of “Elusive Cures: Why Neuroscience Hasn’t Solved Brain Disorders—and How We Can Change That” by Nicole C. Rust ( @nicolecrust.bsky.social )

www.psychiatrymargins.com/p/rewriting-...

Rewriting the Grand Plan of Clinical Neuroscience

A Review of “Elusive Cures” by Nicole C. Rust

www.psychiatrymargins.com

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lastpositivist.bsky.social @lastpositivist.bsky.social · 18d

Just got an email from a scam academic journal asking if I wanted to "explore new advances in White Psychodrama" and it's just got me like: buddy, I can watch the news myself.

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Robert Howard @profrobhoward.bsky.social · 18d

BlueSky friends, forgive me for not posting much on here. I'm standing for President of the RCPsych in the elections next March. I'm still speaking and listening to friends and colleagues about what is important, but you can learn about what I would do if successful here: www.profrobhoward.com

ProfRobHoward

www.profrobhoward.com

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Awais Aftab @awaisaftab.bsky.social · 20d

Rewriting the Grand Plan of Clinical Neuroscience

A Review of “Elusive Cures: Why Neuroscience Hasn’t Solved Brain Disorders—and How We Can Change That” by Nicole C. Rust ( @nicolecrust.bsky.social )

www.psychiatrymargins.com/p/rewriting-...

Rewriting the Grand Plan of Clinical Neuroscience

A Review of “Elusive Cures” by Nicole C. Rust

www.psychiatrymargins.com

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Paul S. Appelbaum, MD @appelbap.bsky.social · 22d

An excellent overview of laws on involuntary commitment of drug users. As I said, “Passing a law doesn’t create a system. Treatment of addiction is difficult and takes time. It is not something that’s going to be solved in 30 days.” www.nytimes.com/2025/09/17/h...

Can Drug Users Be Forced Into Rehab? Trump Says Yes. So Do 34 States.

www.nytimes.com

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NPR @npr.org · 22d

Susan Monarez says RFK Jr. told her to commit to decisions in advance, without reviewing evidence and to dismiss vaccine experts.

Ousted CDC director testifies on why she was fired

Susan Monarez says RFK Jr. told her to commit to decisions in advance, without reviewing evidence and to dismiss vaccine experts.

n.pr

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Liberal Currents @liberalcurrents.com · 23d

"They’re doing an awful, evil thing based on a self-evidently foolish strategy, one that has repeatedly failed for them. And they’re doing it without even the pretense of values. One day they believed in trans rights, the next day they didn’t." www.liberalcurrents.com/britains-bat...

Britain’s Bathroom Ban

The UK has gone from a bathroom ban being unthinkable to a Labour government implementing an extraordinarily authoritarian one—without a vote.

www.liberalcurrents.com

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Aidan Wright @aidangcw.bsky.social · 23d

The perennial challenge for scientists: being honest with yourself about the limitations of your work but also remaining excited about it.

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Dr. Jonathan N. Stea @jonathanstea.bsky.social · 24d

I feel so honored that my book, Mind the Science, has won the 2024 Science Writers and Communicators of Canada Book Award.

And I’m grateful to those in the science communication community who, like me, are fighting the same mission against pseudoscience. 😊✌️

sciencewriters.ca/bookawards2024

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Awais Aftab @awaisaftab.bsky.social · 25d

Reposting for the Monday crowd

Awais Aftab @awaisaftab.bsky.social · 27d

Why Has Critical Psychiatry Run Out of Steam?

What has critical psychiatry become when its gestures of suspicion are indistinguishable from the paranoid accusations of medicine’s most fraudulent enemies?

www.psychiatrymargins.com/p/why-has-cr...

Why Has Critical Psychiatry Run Out of Steam?

An adaptation of Bruno Latour’s famous essay

www.psychiatrymargins.com

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Joe Pierre, MD @psychunseen.bsky.social · 26d

FALSE is now available at Amazon for the insanely low price of $5.

That's cheaper than it would cost me to mail you a free copy.

No better time than now to pick one up and write a review!

www.amazon.com/dp/0197765270/

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Awais Aftab @awaisaftab.bsky.social · 27d

Why Has Critical Psychiatry Run Out of Steam?

What has critical psychiatry become when its gestures of suspicion are indistinguishable from the paranoid accusations of medicine’s most fraudulent enemies?

www.psychiatrymargins.com/p/why-has-cr...

Why Has Critical Psychiatry Run Out of Steam?

An adaptation of Bruno Latour’s famous essay

www.psychiatrymargins.com

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Julia Brown, PhD @juliaehbrown.bsky.social · 28d

Excellent piece by @alanlevinovitz.bsky.social @awaisaftab.bsky.social on the therapeutic effect of diagnosis +
the need for qual research. Reading Parson’s “sick role” theory in undergrad sociology was the moment I realized how much is missed by psych models. www.cambridge.org/core/service...

www.cambridge.org

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Nicole Rust @nicolecrust.bsky.social · 29d

“Species” is a lot like “emotion”: hard to define in ways that everything fits nicely + a long history of debate (including Darwin for both cases).

www.quantamagazine.org/why-is-it-so...

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Adam Hunt @realadamhunt.bsky.social · 29d

🎉New pre-print!🎉

“Our findings represent the most robust evidence to date that evolutionary psychiatry offers normalising causal stories with various positive effects, in this case by casting anxiety as a calibrated defence system that can overshoot in contemporary contexts."

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Awais Aftab @awaisaftab.bsky.social · Sep 6

First-Person Psychiatric Accounts: A Substack Collection

Personal accounts of mental health challenges and mental healthcare, many of which are among the most widely read and appreciated posts in Psychiatry at the Margins.

www.psychiatrymargins.com/p/first-pers...

First-Person Psychiatric Accounts

A Substack Collection

www.psychiatrymargins.com

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Tim Kaiser @tkaiser.science · Sep 4

I really enjoyed this interview with @ploederl.bsky.social by @awaisaftab.bsky.social on the evidence that antidepressants prevent suicide (or lack thereof).

Antidepressants and the Tangle of Treatment-Related Suicidality

A Q&A with Martin Plöderl

www.psychiatrymargins.com

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Nicole Rust @nicolecrust.bsky.social · Sep 3

@awaisaftab.bsky.social did an excellent job with this revision of the APA statement. He's right; that statement is not an effective way to gain trust.

substack.com/home/post/p-...

Left: “IMPORTANT: Decades of rigorous research, randomized clinical trials, peer-reviewed studies, meta-analyses, national registry studies, and FDA oversight show that psychiatric medications are safe and effective. Medications like SSRIs can be lifesaving if they are taken as directed under the care of an appropriately licensed healthcare professional.

Right: What could a better statement have looked like? One that was trying to make some effort at repairing public trust?

Here’s my attempt:

Decades of rigorous research, randomized clinical trials, peer-reviewed studies, meta-analyses, national registry studies, and FDA oversight show that psychiatric medications are safe and effective. That is, when used for the right indications under the care of a qualified clinician, they are appropriate for clinical use based on standards that are applied across medicine, and the expected benefits render the expected risks acceptable to the average patient. This does not mean that psychiatric medications are risk-free, universally effective, or right for every person. Psychiatric medications allow many people to better manage their symptoms and live more functional lives; for some, the effects are transformative. Like all medications, they can also cause harm, including serious adverse effects in a minority. Some of these adverse effects, especially with long-term use, remain poorly studied. The public deserves access to psychiatric medications in a manner that pairs available evidence with person-centered care. Their use requires transparency about uncertainties, mechanisms, trade-offs, and alternatives. We support individuals and families making informed choices.

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