About the Book
The culture of psychiatric diagnosis causes harm.
It labels people in distress. It silences them. It takes away their
individuality and agency. At its worst, it removes their human rights. It only
asks, 'What's wrong with you?' and doesn't ask, 'What happened to you?'
It fails to acknowledge the complexity of an individual's story and their
social context.
This powerful follow-up to the first Drop the Disorder!
book (PCCS Books, 2019) assembles 40 contributors who are challenging the
culture of psychiatric diagnosis and disorder. They include high-profile
names such as 'V' (formerly known as Eve Ensler, author of The Vagina
Monologues), child therapist Kate Silverton and Canadian physician Gabor
Mate (The
Myth of Normal), leading researchers and writers, including
professors Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett (The Spirit Level) and
Joanna Moncrieff; Robert Whitaker of madinamerica.com, and frontline
campaigner Jacqui Dillon, alongside a host of other activists, service users
and refusers, poets, artists, counsellors, psychologists, psychiatrists and other
practitioners and leaders in the mental health and homeless sectors who are
trying to do things differently in their own spheres.
This book's message is 'do
something', and its hard-hitting and inspiring chapters tell us why
and how.
Table of Contents:
A note on language and terminology
Foreword - James Davies
Introduction - Jo Watson
PART ONE - REWRITING THE NARRATIVE
1. Why I wrote Insane Medicine - Sami Timimi
2. 'We need to be honest and open that what we are doing is behaviour change' - Jo Watson interviews Joanna Moncrieff
3. Mad in America: Journalism in the service of activism - Robert Whitaker
4. 'When bad things happen, it fucks you up' - Jo Watson interviews John Read
5. Mad in the UK: A space for silenced and critical voices - Peter Kinderman and Jo Watson
6. If it's in you, get it out there! - Jo Watson interviews Gabor Mate
7. The enemy between us: challenging the inequality that erodes ourmental health - Kate Pickett and Richard Wilkinson
8. 'When we know better, we do better' - Jo Watson interviews Kate Silverton
PART TWO - TRANSFORMING PRACTICE
9. Survival is not a disorder: Resistance, rebellion and revolutionarylove - Bec Bayliss and Akima Thomas
10. Wisdom from the street: what happens when we listen to people'sstories - Pat McArdle
11. 'It's just so important to recognise that people have lives that aremore than just meeting the demands of services' - Jo Watson interviews Hari Sewell
12. Writing a new script for mental health - Sara Boyce and Lisa Morrison
13. Stay curious, keep reading and question the status quo - Sharon McCormick
14. Using the Power Threat Meaning Framework to challengediagnostic practice - Lucy Johnstone, Amanda Griffiths, Ray Middleton, Gareth Morgan,Faye Nikopaschos and Jo Ramsden
15. Community-led approaches to wellbeing - Cormac Russell
16. Disabled people challenging psychiatric diagnosis - Katy Evans and Mel Halacre
PART THREE - ART AS ACTIVISM
17. Poetry in mission: A journey in progress - Jo McFarlane
18. Leading conversations about child sexual abuse: society's shame,not ours - Sophie Olson
19. All I can do is small things. But I care a lot. I'm stubborn. And I'mjust going to keep trying because I have to' - Jo Watson interviews Indigo Daya
20. Dodging diagnosis: CSA survival and creative resistance - Viv Gordon
21. 'When someone owns the truth, becomes accountable for harmsdone, it is pure liberation' - Jo Watson interviews 'V'
PART FOUR - ACTIVIST JOURNEYS
22. 'Psychiatric diagnosis is the first cause of everything bad thathappens in the mental health system' - Jo Watson interviews Paula J. Caplan
23. Story and counterstory: how I took authorship of my life back frompsychiatry - Marnie Wedlake
24. Dialectical behavioral therapy is not my koolade - Rebecca Donaldson
25. 'We have a failed paradigm and that's what needs to change' - Jo Watson interviews Lucy Johnstone
26. Emerging proud to be the change we wish to see in the world - Katie Mottram
27. How I used the law to fight the NHS and won justice for my dad - Nadine Denneth
28. From psychotherapist to activist - Daniel Mackler
29. It started with a book - Anne Guy
30. 'What drives me more than anything is that I know that people canheal' - Jo Watson interviews Jacqui Dillon
About the Author :
Jo Watson is a psychotherapist, supervisor, trainer and activist with 30 years' experience of working with people who have faced trauma and adversity. She challenges the medicalisation of emotional distress and advocates for approaches that reject the pathologising of people and communities. Jo is founder of the Facebook group Drop the Disorder! and co-founder of A Disorder for Everyone (AD4E) (adisorder4everyone.com). Jo is also a founding member of Mad in the UK (madintheuk.com), an affiliate of the website Mad in America, which serves as a catalyst for fundamentally re-thinking theory and practice in the field of mental health in the UK and promoting positive change. Jo is the editor of Drop the Disorder!: Challenging the culture of psychiatric diagnosis (PCCS Books, 2018) and We are the change-makers: Poems supporting drop the disorder (PCCS Books, 2020).
Review :
'At this unprecedented point in time and history, we are starting to re-evaluate previously accepted norms in terms of language, doctrine and accepted cultural and systemic beliefs. Drop the Disorder + Do Something! offers a richly inspirational contribution to the discourse regarding our ever-evolving human condition. Dig into this book for some mind-changing ideas and insights.'
Annie Lennox, singer-songwriter, political activist and philanthropist
'An absolute must-read for anyone who wants to radically rethink why so many of us are depressed or anxious or emotionally distressed - and, crucially, how we solve these problems. A beautiful and profound challenge to the misconceptions that are keeping us stuck.'
Johann Hari, writer and journalist, author of Lost Connections (2018) and Stolen Focus (2022)
'Drop the Disorder + Do Something! is a powerful, thought-provoking book that dares to question the status quo in mental health care. It is a must-have resource for anyone dedicated to creating more equitable, compassionate social and psychiatric systems. With a combination of courageous narratives, cutting-edge research and practical insights, it shines a spotlight on the transformative individuals and movements fighting for mental health justice and serves as an inspiring, empowering read for anyone seeking to understand the complexities of the mind, and the sometimes-devastating limitations of approaches which claim to treat it.'
Eleanor Longden, Honorary Research Fellow, University of Manchester and Co-Director, Complex Trauma and Resilience Unit, Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust
'Learning and unlearning is what I do to live, create, and embrace this human experience fully. I share what I learn late to help others learn sooner. Jo has collected stories that I will continue to share, as this book is a call to action - encouraging people to DO something! May this book ignite the sparks that continues the inevitable revolution!'
Mitzy Sky, writer, author and human rights advocate. substack.com/@mitzysky
'Drop the Disorder + Do Something! brings together an impressive line-up of authors and artists from around the world to weave a rich tapestry of wisdom, research, practice, history and activism. If you see the problems with today's mental health industry and want to learn more about what led us to where we are, what people are doing to change things and how you can get more involved, this book is an absolute must-read. What a beautiful collection of chapters written by inspiring people who've devoted their lives to contributing towards the building of a demedicalised, rehumanised society.'
Laura Delano, author of UNSHRUNK and Executive Director of Inner Compass Initiative. lauradelano.com
'This book is very much needed and very timely. There is increasing evidence that the biomedical model that has dominated the global mental health field during last 40 years has failed to deliver on its promises. Change is needed - but what needs to be done differently? Jo Watson's new book is a treasure house of creative solutions and useful insights assembled from an impressive array of contributors who are actively challenging the culture of diagnosis and disorder. This book is a perfect guidance for anyone who wants to know more and to contribute to this vital change process.'
Dainius Puras, Professor of Psychiatry, Vilnius University
'The more we can help people understand we are not suffering from disorders but struggling with living in contexts that frighten us and deprive us of essential nutrients for the mind, the more we free ourselves to discover our own compassionate courage and wisdom and build the relationships with ourselves and others that help us flourish personally morally and spiritually. This outstanding book is a must for all clinicians because it takes us to the heart of how to consider and address the traumas, tragedies and suffering of life. It is the future.'
Paul Gilbert, Professor of Clinical psychology, University of Derby, and founder of the Compassionate Mind Foundation
'Drop the disorder + Do Something! is filled with vibrant and interesting stories, illustrating the misguided orthodoxy of the medical model. It celebrates the growing community of activists who have gone out on a limb to challenge the status quo. What can we all do to counter the damage and create another way of understanding and responding to emotional distress? The book is a call to arms and there is no fence to sit on - only collusion or protest. After reading, I think most will choose the latter.'
Janet Tolan, counsellor/psychotherapist, team development practitioner and co-editor of People Not Pathology: Freeing therapy from the medical model
'The title of this book says it all. Free yourself from the very harmful tyranny of mainstream (biological) psychiatry and do everything you can to help those who are stuck in the system to come off their drugs and get a chance to recover and come back to a normal life. The chapters are full of people who have contributed a lot to this much-needed activism. Words matters, and I have no doubt that this book will accomplish much-needed changes. For some people, it may help them reclaim their life.'
Professor Peter C. Gotzsche, physician, medical researcher and writer. www.scientificfreedom.dk/books
'Watson's book is another nail in the coffin of traditional biomedical psychiatry, which is already falling apart in the face of continuous embarrassments. For a reader seething with rage in the face of injustice, uncertainty in the face of disillusionment, or inertia in response to colossal institutional apathy, cruelty, and failure, this book lights up multiple pathways by sharing the numerous ways people have mobilised themselves and others against seemingly invincible corrupt systems. In sharing these stories of some of the most renowned figures in the world of critical psychiatry and service-user rights, the book offers us both hope and ways to shake off the inertia, channel the rage, and leap into the uncertainty.'
Ayurdhi Dhar, Founder, Mad in South Asia, and Assistant Professor of Psychology, Amity University, India
'In this book, Jo Watson has brought together some remarkable people doing remarkable things to challenge the fundamental human rights issue of ensuring that people in distress are provided with healing relationship experiences instead of being labelled, drugged and categorised. The book is full of thought-provoking interviews and deeply moving stories of how people have healed when someone has listened to their story, understood and helped to make sense of what's happened. Every author writes in such a way as to inspire us all to be active in a movement that truly elevates the dignity of people who've experienced traumatic life experiences and helps them thrive.'
Margot Sunderland, Director of Innovation and Research, Trauma Informed Schools UK, and Director of the Education and Training Centre for Child Mental Health
'Drop the Disorder + Do Something! boldly challenges the mental health industry's status quo, urging society to resist pathologising human distress, confront systemic injustices, and advocate for the dignity of every person.'
Vesper Moore, international human rights advocate
'Jo Watson's book is food for the soul. She offers us a carefully curated selection of authors, each bringing new ideas that promote a depathologising model of mental health and addiction. The book emphasises the need for action as a way of building community strength and alternative paths for healing. A must read.'
Jan Winhall, author of Treating Trauma and Addiction with the Felt Sense Polyvagal Model
