James Barnes MSc., MA
@psychgeist52
Psychotherapist/counsellor (MBACP)⎮Lecturer & Faculty. Relational Psychotherapy. Lived Experience. Views My Own. http://jamesbarnes52.co.uk
Here is the first essay of my new blog series on @PsychToday discussing relational psychology and its implications for psychotherapy, psychiatry and mental health. "The Myth of the Isolated Mind: Introducing relational psychology" Comments most welcome! psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-be…
Why psychosis is not so crazy: A conversation with Stijn Vanheule By Ayurdhi Dhar madintheuk.com/2025/07/why-ps… #PsychosisRecovery #Psychoanalysis #CreativeCoping #ListenToUnderstand #DignityInPsychosis #NarrativeTherapy #BuildingConnection
“The meta-analysis showed that clients value outcome dimensions beyond symptom reduction, such as deeper self-understanding, enhanced self-agency, and greater social engagement,” the authors write. madinamerica.com/2025/07/therap…
… the person we are trying to help might expect to feel cured when we explain... In this kind of work we know that even the right explanation is ineffectual. The person we are trying to help needs a new experience in a specialized setting. — DW Winnicott Playing and Reality
Far from the story of progress we are being sold, mental health science tells a story of stagnation and, if anything, worsening outcomes happening in parallel with increasing volumes of mental health provision and psychiatric drug prescribing.
The baby screams and bites; the caregiver might be alarmed but contained, might feel anxious and persecuted, might feel depressed and hopeless, or might feel angry and lash out. The resulting experience and dynamic (for both) will be very different.
Relational psychoanalytic approaches can obscure the fact that certain psychopathologies, especially borderline and psychotic-level organizations, can involve unilateral intrusions into the mental life of the other. In these cases, the other person becomes not a co-constructor…
A decade ago, when we warned about the harms of over-medicalisation, no one in power paid attention. Now they do, as the results are impossible to ignore as an entire generation suffers the personal & ideological harms of their distress being unduly pathologised & medicated...
Misleading (and usual ad hominem) comment from Prof Howard. There are no RCTs of antidepressants in pregnancy so there is no evidence of harms or benefits from RCTs. Observational studies which control for confounders routinely find the harms mentioned.
Dr Roussos-Ross turned out to be the grown-up on the panel. “Treating depression during pregnancy isn’t a luxury”. Only speaker to appear to understand the literature, the relevance of confounding factors and the absence of RCT evidence for the “harms” raised by other panellists.
Out today by Anders Sørensen. An informative guide to coming off psychiatric drugs. Provides detailed help on reducing medication and on how to manage rebounding emotions amazon.co.uk/Crossing-Zero-…
1/5 Psychologist Anders Sørensen uses an analogy to highlight a serious problem in scientific research design, one that closely parallels the recent Kalfas et al. review.
The BMJ has altered it's original news piece on the recent antidepressant withdrawal study, "to clarify the study’s limitations and to add comments from James Davies" as the editor says.... - We all appreciate this critical amendment 👇 bmj.com/content/390/bm…
We constantly find that it is how the therapist relates to the client that matters, whereas all the technical theory and procedures - especially in something like CBT - essentially don't matter.
What is the most effective ingredient in cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT)? "Asking open-ended questions," concludes this AI-driven analysis: pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39625130
And open ended questions have nothing to do with the philosophy of CBT, which is based on correct answers.
What is the most effective ingredient in cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT)? "Asking open-ended questions," concludes this AI-driven analysis: pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39625130
"Patients should question their doctors about any drugs they are offered, using the acronym BRAN: ask about the Benefits and Risks of medication, the Alternatives and what happens if Nothing is done." standard.co.uk/comment/antide…
Mental Health Needs Anthropology: A New Humanism for Psychology An interview between several Norwegian psychologists and anthropologist Tim Ingold explores how mental health practitioners could engage more directly and ethically with service users. buff.ly/wPk0q4d
From the outset of the SSRI era there has been an effort to downplay or erase the existence of withdrawal. Recent events are just the most recent instantiation....
Drug companies, & the Drs working for them, created the term 'Discontinuation Syndrome' as a euphemism for 'withdrawal', as they were worried the term 'withdrawal' would put consumers off, bringing attention to a problem they were keen to downplay... It's really that simple.
Yes, we've known that for a hundred years.
Childhood Emotional Trauma Linked to Later Social Distress Adolescents with a history of childhood emotional trauma are more likely to experience social avoidance and distress, a new study shows. Researchers analyzed data from 577 junior high students and found that trauma…
People often seem to have no idea about the profound contradictions in their moral view of the world, oscillating victim and perpetrator back and forth to fit whatever makes them feel righteous. The world really is is the theatre of the unconscious.
That's the the very point, and what makes it decidedly uninteresting. Experience changes, the brain changes. Of course there are correlates in the brain. What's being added?
Neuroplasticity is fascinating. Yes, trauma rewires your brain. But so does living a healthy & fulfilling life.