Most people associate forcible detentions in psychiatric wards with barbaric practices of the past. But as Canadian investigative journalist Rob Wipond reports in his new book, involuntary psychiatric treatment is all too common today. In Your Consent Is Not Required, Rob shows just how little agency patients often have in their own care and, moreover, how the medical establishment and pharmaceutical industry benefit from as many people as possible being classified as “mental patients.” In this conversation, he talks with Meghan about how psychiatric interventions can be weaponized against patients, why therapies such as electroshock remain so widely used, and how wellness checks and calls to suicide hotlines can result in massive overreach that traps patients in a deeply-flawed and often poorly regulated system.  

 

For paying subscribers: Rob stayed overtime for a more personal conversation about how he feels about his life and career these days and how he went from acting in local theater, performing music, and doing various kinds of community work to being an investigative reporter. He also shared his theory as to why Canadians do so well in American late-night television. To hear that portion, become a paying subscriber at meghandaum.substack.com 

 

Guest Bio: Rob Wipond is a freelance journalist and creative nonfiction writer who writes frequently at the interfaces between psychiatry, civil rights, community issues, policing, surveillance and privacy, and social change. His articles have been nominated for seventeen magazine and journalism awards, and he’s the author of the book Your Consent is Not Required: The Rise in Psychiatric Detentions, Forced Treatment, and Abusive Guardianships (BenBella, 2023).