A person in distress, from graffiti in Finland

Pathologizing Distress

One bioethics scholar wonders if modern medicine is in danger of pathologizing what are painful, but normal, human experiences.
a group of silhouettes with different brain patterns including puzzle pieces, flowers, a stock market chart

When Do We Have Empathy For People Living with Mental Illness?

Do we feel more empathy for those living with mental disorders when there's a biological explanation versus a psychosocial one for their condition?
Therapist communicating with man while sitting by book shelf at home office

How Storytelling Heals

Illness can challenge the notion of the self and disrupt patients' narratives about their own lives. Some scholars suggest that storytelling can help.
psychedelics

The Pscience of Psychedelics

Researchers found that Psilocybin and other hallucinogens may prove helpful in their ability to quiet a portion of the brain connected to depression.
Online distress

The Internet Needs a “Handle With Care” Protocol

Emotion can be difficult to parse online. Why not adopt a common protocol that lets our fellow internet citizens know our emotional state?
The Nightmare

The Racialized History of “Hysteria”

Even three decades after “hysteria” was deleted from the DSM-III, some of the word’s diagnostic power obviously still remains.
Hurricane Katrina drawing

Helping Kids After Harvey

Right now, there’s an outpouring of support for families displaced by Harvey, but what happens after the waters recede in Texas?
Lichtenstein Crying Woman

What Really Made 1950s Housewives So Miserable

Where did the image of the quietly desperate stay-at-home mother come from?
Werewolf gargoyle

Depressed People Aren’t Villains—Nor Are They Werewolves

Our tendency to view people with mental disorders as monsters instead of patients has a history that dates back to the 1400s.
13 Reasons Why

Can Fiction Really Spark Suicide?

The Netflix drama 13 Reasons Why is so powerful—and so controversial—it's sparked a national debate about teenage suicide.