Joe Pierre, MD
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psychunseen.bsky.social
Joe Pierre, MD
@psychunseen.bsky.social
Academic psychiatrist at UCSF and author of the Psych Unseen blog at Psychology Today and the book False: How Mistrust, Disinformation, and Motivated Reasoning Make Us Believe Things That Aren't True (Oxford University Press, 2025) drjoepierre.com
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Ever wonder "how can someone believe THAT?"

My book "FALSE: How Mistrust, Disinformation, and Motivated Reasoning Make Us Believe Things That Aren't True" (Oxford University Press, 2025) explains why.

Please give it a read, spread the word, and write a review! 🙏

drjoepierre.com/index.php/fa...
Happy Birthday Bruce Lee
November 28, 2025 at 5:59 AM
Reposted by Joe Pierre, MD
NEW: A Discord community with nearly 200 members serves as a support group for people whose minds and lives have been upended by episodes of AI delusion and psychosis.

In some cases, members say, the group has helped people climb out of their destructive AI "spirals."

futurism.com/artificial-i...
Meet the Group Breaking People Out of AI Delusions
In this Discord server, people impacted by AI delusions and psychosis share their experiences — and even help users out of delusional spells.
futurism.com
November 24, 2025 at 5:23 PM
Reposted by Joe Pierre, MD
"This case provides evidence that new-onset psychosis in the form of delusional thinking can emerge in the setting of immersive AI chatbot use."
Pre-print of our case of new-onset AI-associated psychosis in a patient with no prior psychotic episodes.

Although there have been many such reports in the media, I believe this the first case published in the academic literature.

innovationscns.com/youre-not-cr...
“You're Not Crazy”: A Case of New-onset AI-associated Psychosis - Innovations in Clinical Neuroscience
Peer-reviewed evidence-based information in neuroscience research and practice, including psychiatry, neurology, psychology
innovationscns.com
November 22, 2025 at 6:15 PM
Pre-print of our case of new-onset AI-associated psychosis in a patient with no prior psychotic episodes.

Although there have been many such reports in the media, I believe this the first case published in the academic literature.

innovationscns.com/youre-not-cr...
“You're Not Crazy”: A Case of New-onset AI-associated Psychosis - Innovations in Clinical Neuroscience
Peer-reviewed evidence-based information in neuroscience research and practice, including psychiatry, neurology, psychology
innovationscns.com
November 22, 2025 at 5:51 PM
Trump drafts executive order preventing regulation of a product that tells people how to harm themselves and encourages delusional thinking. 🤔

www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2...
White House drafts order directing Justice Department to sue states that pass AI regulations
The draft order comes after Republicans in Congress failed to pass a federal ban on state AI regulation, as more lawmakers raise concerns about the technology.
www.washingtonpost.com
November 20, 2025 at 2:07 AM
The jocks may have been the kings of high school, but he came to understand that it was a fleeting achievement.

"I remember as a kid thinking, it doesn't matter if you're good at this... you become suspicious of how everything works--power structures; whatever the caste systems are..."
November 15, 2025 at 5:23 PM
Reposted by Joe Pierre, MD
When did political division stop being about policy disagreements and become about tribal warfare?

When the goals shift from coexistence to defeat, false beliefs become weapons and truth becomes whatever serves you.

Tune in: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/critically-speaking/id1463016517
November 13, 2025 at 3:59 PM
Dictator Politics 101:

Create a mess, dig the country into a hole, walk it back, and then claim credit for being a hero.

apnews.com/article/trum...
Trump scraps tariffs on beef, coffee and tropical fruit in a push to lower grocery store prices
President Donald Trump has announced the removal of U.S. tariffs on beef, coffee, tropical fruits and other commodities.
apnews.com
November 15, 2025 at 4:37 AM
New book on Cults and Persuasive Leadership with a chapter by me.

Check it out.
November 14, 2025 at 2:49 PM
Reposted by Joe Pierre, MD
Dr. Joe Pierre joins Critically Speaking to explore why our brains choose comfort over truth and what it costs us when we can't tell the difference between confidence and correctness.

Listen now: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/critically-speaking/id1463016517
November 11, 2025 at 9:34 PM
Waking up to find out that John Zorn's Tzadik label recordings are no longer available on Spotify

Not cool.

How am I supposed to get my daily dose of the Brian Marsella Trio?
November 11, 2025 at 4:21 PM
Starting in a few minutes... join us for Q&A!
Zoom in to @indivisible.org today at 1:30 PM to hear me and other experts talk about medical misinformation.
November 9, 2025 at 9:28 PM
Zoom in to @indivisible.org today at 1:30 PM to hear me and other experts talk about medical misinformation.
November 9, 2025 at 3:54 PM
When AI Chatbots Encourage Violence

When chatbot sycophancy meets mental illness, the results can be deadly.

www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/psyc...
When AI Chatbots Encourage Violence
When AI chatbot sycophancy meets mental illness, the results can be deadly.
www.psychologytoday.com
November 8, 2025 at 12:45 AM
Should AI Chatbots Be Held Responsible for Suicide?

Ongoing lawsuits allege that chatbots have driven people to self-harm.

www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/psyc...
Should AI Chatbots Be Held Responsible for Suicide?
Several cases of suicide encouraged by AI chatbot use have been reported. Should chatbot makers be held liable?
www.psychologytoday.com
November 7, 2025 at 1:10 AM
Reposted by Joe Pierre, MD
“All we can do is not get pulled into the political debates and try to be fair-minded, factual, credible and authoritative,” STAT’s founder Rick Berke tells Gretel Kahn. reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/news/how-sci...
How science journalists worldwide are fighting White House health misinformation
“All we can do is not get pulled into the political debates and try to be fair-minded, factual, credible and authoritative,” said STAT’s founder Rick Berke.
reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk
November 7, 2025 at 12:00 AM
I'll be damned, it looks like most Americans don't want to live in an autocracy after all.
November 5, 2025 at 3:08 PM
Happy Halloween
November 1, 2025 at 1:09 AM
Would love to see more backstory here…

RFK Jr implicates Tylenol as a cause of autism and then Texas decides to sue the drug company.

My guess is that the drug company then threatened to countersue RFK Jr.

newrepublic.com/post/202435/...?
RFK Jr. Admits He Can’t Actually Tie Tylenol to Autism
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said there isn’t “sufficient” evidence to back up his claims.
newrepublic.com
October 31, 2025 at 6:21 PM
ICE is a masked police force with minimal transparency that has been detaining American citizens with minimal due process.

In short, it is the Trump regime's gestapo.

This really needs more press coverage.

www.propublica.org/article/immi...
More Than 170 U.S. Citizens Have Been Held by Immigration Agents. They’ve Been Kicked, Dragged and Detained for Days.
The government does not track how often immigration agents grab citizens. So ProPublica did. Our tally — almost certainly incomplete — includes people who were held for days without a lawyer. And near...
www.propublica.org
October 23, 2025 at 2:39 PM
New study provides some validation of the "inner speech" model of auditory verbal hallucinations.

What say you @philcorlett.bsky.social ?

academic.oup.com/schizophreni...
Corollary Discharge Dysfunction to Inner Speech and its Relationship to Auditory Verbal Hallucinations in Patients with Schizophrenia Spectrum Disorders
AbstractBackground and Hypothesis. Auditory-verbal hallucinations (AVH)—the experience of hearing voices in the absence of auditory stimulation—are a cardi
academic.oup.com
October 21, 2025 at 9:56 PM
No. Fucking. Kings.

#NoKings
October 18, 2025 at 8:11 PM
Smart people...
47% of Americans have little or no trust in the U.S. to effectively regulate the use of AI.
www.pewresearch.org/global/2025/...
October 15, 2025 at 8:10 PM
@gregsargent.bsky.social: "From the tariffs, to the government shutdown, to the ACA subsidies expiring—in every conceivable way, [MAGA is] screwing the shit out of their people.

But they're selling [them on] the notion that they’re making Democratic areas suffer."

newrepublic.com/article/2017...
October 14, 2025 at 6:38 PM