It's Not Just In Your Head

This week we talk to Jennifer White, one of the founders of the Critical Suicidology Network. White is a professor in the School of Child and Youth Care at the University of Victoria in British Columbia, Canada. She served for 7 years as the Director of Suicide Prevention Center in the Dept. of Psychiatry at the University of British Columbia. With White, we learn about the new field of "critical suicidology," which seeks to rethink what it means to study and prevent suicide in a more diverse and less psycho-centric and depoliticized ways. We explore how historical factors like colonialism and genocide, deindustrialization, gender violence and racism impact suicide. While DBT's mantra as a modality is to help clients "build a life worth living," White challenges us to develop approaches that empower suicidal people to fight to build a WORLD worth living in.

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ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message:  This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of  the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical  advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any  health decisions or management.

Short clip of upcoming episode with critical suicidologist Jennifer White. Hear the whole episode early at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead.

Two union organizers from Atlanta, Georgia join us to explore questions about the psychology of bosses versus workers in the context of union organizing. What's a typical reaction of managers and bosses when workers form a union? Are these reactions any different with more liberal or progressive bosses? Are workers who organize a real or imagined threat to a business owner's sense of identity and accomplishments? What are common fears that prevent workers from organizing? When workers do organize together, what helps them overcome fear of retaliation from the boss and how do they develop a sense of solidarity over horizontal distrust and competitiveness?

ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message:  This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of  the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical  advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any  health decisions or management.

Voice of Jen Garcia, workplace organizer and "reformed animator." Get access to the full episode and our monthly reading groups at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead.

Marxian economist Richard Wolff joins us for this episode to help us define our terms. What do we mean when we use words like capitalism, socialism, and communism? Wolff begins his explanation by describing different kinds of relationships and tensions between who has owned property throughout history and who has not. Relationships between slave owner and slave, feudal lord and serf, and capitalist employer and employee, all share some commonalities through history and during each historical period there have been both supporters and critics of each economic system. Wolff explains that although in the US, Karl Marx has been made into an almost cartoon-like villain largely due to the 20th century's "Red Scare," that Marx was just one of many critics of capitalism who believed capitalism was born and would die, followed by eventually systems we might call socialism and communism. Wolff makes clear that definitions of socialism and communism have always been heatedly debated, as has been the question of how we are to move from capitalism to socialism, but Americans in particular are only now coming out of decades long hibernation -- having lagged behind the rest of the world in understanding these ideas, discussing and debating them, and applying all of this to their own lives and societies.

ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message:  This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of  the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical  advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any  health decisions or management.

Voice of Professor Richard Wolff - for early access to this episode become a patron at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead.com

For this episode we invited Asad Haider on to talk about identity politics and mental health. Haider wrote a book called Mistaken Identity in 2018, which weaves in a blend of personal narratives and scholarly analysis; Haider shares on the one hand the "lived experiences" of being on the receiving end of racism having grown up in a Pakistani immigrant family in post-9/11 America, and on the other a deep challenge for the left to consider whether modern identity politics are capable of significantly and positively transforming society.

https://saaganthology.com/Emancipation-and-Exhaustion

ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message:  This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of  the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical  advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any  health decisions or management.

This is the voice of Asad Haider, founding editor of Viewpoint Magazine and author of Mistaken Identity.

https://saaganthology.com/Emancipation-and-Exhaustion

Max interviews Occupational Therapist Maria Dong to talk about the many ways our for-profit healthcare system negatively impacts healthcare workers and patient outcomes. Maria can be reached at @mariadongwrites on twitter.

ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message:  This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of  the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical  advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any  health decisions or management.

Get early access to this episode and other patron perks at patreon.com/itsnotjustinyourhead.