93. Neoliberalism and the Global Export of Psychiatry: Toward Epistemic Humility with Psychologist Justin Karter

Commercialized psychiatric and psychological knowledge encourages us to think of ourselves primarily as consumers and promotes a set of values that suggest some of us have minds or brains that should be ‘fixed’ with particular products or services. These neoliberal values have led to a great deal of institutional corruption and also has been exported beyond the western world across the globe. Many researchers, clinicians and activists have rallied together to fight against medicalized global mental health initiatives which promote a narrow westernized notion of wellness and defined how treatment should look, often at the expense of local healing practices and without the participation of people with lived experience. Justin Karter, couseling psychologist, and research news editor at Mad In America, has spent a long time advocating for epistemic justice in the psy disciplines and helping to expose practices and policies that undermine people’s human rights and agency.

In this episode we discuss:

• how the political and psychological meet within and outside of therapy
• commercialization of psychopharmaceuticals and institutional corruption
• how neoliberalism and capitalist values are embedded in psychiatry
• the global mental health movement and psychiatric export as a neocolonial practice
• the ways in which global advocates with lived experience uniting and fighting back
• the need for epistemic justice, humility, and polyphony
• legal updates from the UN Committee for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
• psychological humanities, mad studies, and other exciting emerging disciples of study

Bio: Justin M. Karter, PhD, is a Counseling Psychologist in private practice in Boston and an instructor for the Center for Psychological Humanities & Ethics at Boston College. He is also the long-time research news editor of the Mad in America webzine. He completed his doctorate at the University of Massachusetts Boston in 2021. Justin does research in critical psychology, critical psychiatry, and philosophy of psychology. He is currently working on a book on the activism of psychosocial disability advocates in the context of the movement for global mental health.

Links:

1. Exploring the Fault Lines in Mental Health Discourse - Mad In America - https://www.madinamerica.com/2022/10/interview-psychologist-justin-karter/
2. Can Psychosocial Disability Transform Global Mental Health? - https://www.madinamerica.com/2023/08/can-psychosocial-disability-decolonize-mental-health-a-conversation-with-luis-arroyo-and-justin-karter/
3. Boston College Psychological Humanities - https://www.bc.edu/content/bc-web/schools/lynch-school/sites/Psychological-Humanities-Ethics/About.html#tab-mission_and_history
4. Justin’s Research Gate Profile: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Justin-Karter

Resources Mentioned

• Psychiatry Under The Influence by Robert Whitaker and Lisa Cosgrove - https://link.springer.com/book/10.1057/9781137516022
• Vikram Patel lancet article: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(23)02241-9/abstract
• UN CRPD: https://www.un.org/development/desa/disabilities/convention-on-the-rights-of-persons-with-Disabilities.html

Sessions & Information about the host: ⁠⁠JazmineRussell.com⁠⁠

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