Glass Houses: an exploration of violence and abuse by Ian Murray

Nineteen seventy one was drawing to a close and I was entering my sixth month as a student nurse. The months since July had begun to shape and mature me. I recall clearly and fondly my maturing but in many respects my adolescence still predominated. The arrival of the next student nurse intake, fresh and breathless from school and full of wonder provided me with the perfect opportunity to show how wise I was in the best schoolboy tradition. It was time to show the new boys the ropes.

Psychiatry and Delusion in the Gulf War by Helen Spandler

There are many pressing and ongoing concerns following the latest Gulf war. The intense media focus on Iraq during the military invasion has quietened down after ‘our troops’ returned home, supposedly victorious over the ‘axes of evil’. We won’t know for many years the full extent of casualties, or the environmental, cultural and economic consequences of the war.

Thomas Szasz special issue – call for contributions

A call for contributions to a special issue of Asylum: The Magazine for Democratic Psychiatry on Thomas Szasz (1920-2012)

Believing in Bedlam. Memories of Pete Shaughnessy by friends and colleagues

There’s too much pressure now for things to slip back to the way they were. Rob Dellar, Mad Pride writes…

Depression, Psychiatry and the Use of ECT by Pat Bracken

When I was training in psychiatry in the 1980s I was taught that depression was an illness like any other. Like appendicitis or disorders of the gall-bladder it could be investigated, diagnosed, measured and treated through different sorts of medical intervention. It had sub-types, a described course and with the right expertise, a prognosis could be given to the patient.

Conference Calls for Survivor Workers Union

1ST UK Conference for Survivor Workers Manchester Mechanics Institute 28th February 2001: The event was, in fact, was launched the evening before, most appropriately, with a social and entertainment hosted by Mad Pride. Conference opened, not so much with an air of expectancy, but rather one of achievement – wonder even. Read more

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