Milestone/Open Thread/Updates
AMA
Earlier in March, Psychiatry at the Margins crossed 20K total subscribers. Welcome to all the new readers, and a warm hello to all the longstanding ones. This publication remains one of the most meaningful projects I’ve ever taken on, and seeing how it’s been received has been a gift. Thank you for being a part of it. If you’ve started following the blog recently, do explore the archive.
As I say often, Psychiatry at the Margins is a labor of love and a one-person-plus-friends operation. My gratitude to all my friends, readers across the world, guest contributors, interviewees, and commenters.
An extra thanks to those who support this newsletter with a paid subscription. Paid subscriptions facilitate the time and effort required to produce this newsletter and help keep most posts accessible without paywalls, and they also enhance the visibility and reach of the newsletter via Substack rankings. Please consider supporting this newsletter if it enriches your life.
This post is an open thread. All readers are welcome to comment or ask questions. Share feedback, introduce yourselves, point out theoretical or scientific developments that I should be paying attention to, suggest topics for future posts, etc.
I have been rather slow in responding to comments on recent posts as I am scrambling to finish the draft of my book, Remaking Psychiatry, to submit it to my editor at the agreed-upon deadline. It’s under contract with the trade books division of Harvard University Press. I have conflicted feelings about writing a book at the dawn of, as the word goes, the post-literate society. The process of writing it has been rather intense, and it has not helped that I’ve had a tremendously busy past year (as soon as I agreed to write the book, the universe started sending all sorts of obligations and responsibilities my way, curious) but it has also been clarifying. I believe in the book, and I am eager to send it out into the world.
In an unexpected turn of events, I have been selected by the American Psychiatric Association for the 2026 Distinguished Service Award for services to American psychiatry. I am surprised, like many of you may be, but also delighted and honored. I am grateful to the folks who believed in me enough to nominate me and support my selection. Is my selection any reflection of the current mood of American psychiatry? I am not sure (probably not), but one can always hope! Since I’m receiving the award, I’m planning to be at the Convocation ceremony at the APA annual meeting in San Francisco in May.
The International Network for Philosophy and Psychiatry (INPP) is holding its next international conference on the theme of “What can Philosophy do for Mental Health Care?” on October 8 - 9, 2026, in Nijmegen, the Netherlands. I am one of the keynote speakers (along with Sofia Jeppsson and Rosa Ritunnano). It is building up to be an exciting event. Consider attending!
I will also be at the 2026 annual meeting of the Association for the Advancement of Philosophy and Psychiatry (AAPP), May 26-27, 2026, at the University of Texas at Dallas. Following the in-person conference, there will be a virtual conference on May 29-30, 2026. Keep an eye on the website for further details.
Daniel Oppenheimer’s profile on me has been republished in the March/April 2026 issue of Psychotherapy Networker as a special extra feature (free to read but requires an email sign-up). Check it out if you haven’t read it before.
Sigal Samuel interviewed me for Vox on various considerations that come up around staying on antidepressants versus going off them. You can see the Q&A here.
See also:
I'm glad to see the APA recognizing the importance of your work! To take you up on the AMA, do you have any thoughts on mind-body syndromes and the recent momentum of Pain Reprocessing Therapy, Emotional Awareness and Expression Therapy, and the broader movement inspired by John Sarno--which gained academic credibility with the 2022 JAMA Psychiatry trial of PRT for lower back pain. Or put differently, any thoughts on somatization of distress and somatoform disorders? I can't wait to read your book. I find pretty much every one of your blog posts indispensable in my understanding of mental disorders.
I am only surprised that you've received that award because I wouldn't have imagined that the association would be as so open to your work. But I'm also delighted! Your success bodes well for the field and for our patients. And please don't believe the post-literate hype! I'm happy to report from the publishing trenches, we're still writing and reading :)