Title: Institutionalized Madness
Subtitle: The Interplay of Psychiatry and Society’s Institutions
Subject Classification:  Psychology, Counselling, Healthcare  
BIC Classification: JM, LA, MMH
BISAC Classification: PSY031000, PSY036000, MED105000
Binding: Hardback, Paperback, eBook
Publication date: 04 Dec 2024
ISBN (Hardback): 978-1-80441-656-3
ISBN (eBook): 978-1-80441-657-0
ISBN (Paperback): 978-1-80441-658-7

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Description

Institutionalized Madness takes a critical, wide-ranging look at the ways in which psychiatry and the psychiatric “mental disorder” paradigm are embedded within various institutions. It examines how the specialty of psychiatry and its accompanying controversial menu of “mental disorders”, or “mental illnesses” are omnipresent throughout various facets of everyday life.

Issues that will be explored include how psychiatry and the law interact, such as in the areas of guardianship, informed consent, and expert testimony in courts. Other topics covered will be psychiatry’s influence on “Big Pharma,” the role of psychiatric diagnosis in schools (e.g., the provision of school-based services, such as Special Education support), the interplay between psychiatry and government (such as the mandated use of psychiatric diagnosis in healthcare), and more.

In short, this volume attempts to bring to the surface the many differing ways in which psychiatry and mental illness/disorder rhetoric can or do touch our lives, whether we are aware of their influence or not.

Institutionalized Madness is the sixth Volume of the Ethics International Press Critical Psychology and Critical Psychiatry Series.

Biography

Editor(s):  Arnoldo Cantú, LCSW is a clinical social worker with experience in school social work and community mental health working with children, adolescents, and their families in a clinical capacity. He is undertaking Doctoral research at Colorado State University (CSU) with an interest in researching conceptual and practical alternatives to the DSM.

Dr. Eric Maisel, Ph.D., is a former family therapist, based in California, USA, who works actively as a creativity coach. He is the author of many books on creativity, psychology, and mental health, among them The Future of Mental Health, Humane Helping, and Rethinking Depression.

Dr. Chuck Ruby, Ph.D., is Executive Director of the International Society for Ethical Psychology and Psychiatry. He is a U.S. Air Force veteran and a licensed psychologist in private practice in southern Maryland who has been offering psychotherapy services for more than 25 years.

Reviews

"Institutionalized Madness" cuts through the noise with a refreshingly honest look at how psychiatric thinking has seeped into every corner of society. Edited by Cantú, Maisel, and Ruby, this book doesn't pull punches when examining how mental health frameworks shape everything from our courtrooms to our classrooms. What struck me most was how personal it feels—especially in chapters like Petrozzo's account of psychiatric patients facing a legal system that seems rigged against them. Instead of treating mental health struggles as just chemical imbalances or personal failures, the authors connect the dots between individual suffering and broader systems of power, asking the uncomfortable but necessary question: who really benefits from the current approach to mental health?
The book manages to be both scholarly and deeply human, avoiding academic jargon while still delivering substantial insights. Rather than just complaining about problems, the contributors offer thoughtful alternatives that center human dignity. I appreciated how the different voices—from Cantú's critical take on diagnostic manuals to Ruby's perspective from years of clinical work—created a conversation that felt alive on the page. While the critique is sharp, there's also genuine hope woven throughout. This isn't just another dry analysis of institutional problems; it's a passionate call to reimagine mental health care as something that could actually heal rather than control. For anyone who's ever questioned the mainstream mental health narrative, this book doesn't just validate those doubts—it transforms them into a vision for something better."
- Nafees Alam, Ph.D., LMSW, Associate Professor of Social Work, University of Nebraska