James Davies PhD
@drjamesdaviesbskys.bsky.social
Dad - Husband - Writer - Associate Professor of Medical Anthropology & Psychology (Ph.D @UniofOxford). Practicing Psychotherapist (UKCP). Author of Cracked (Icon Books) & Sedated (Atlantic Books)
Pinned
To demedicalise distress is not to delegitimise distress. One can honor, respect and care for profound suffering without labeling it as illness, pathology or disorder.
Assuming a 'diagnostic identity' as your core identity (as it's supposedly hardwired into your brain) centres 'disorder' as a core & enduring characteristic of your self, over which the psych elite now have ideological & instrumental authority. This doesn’t sound like liberation.
October 8, 2025 at 10:24 AM
Assuming a 'diagnostic identity' as your core identity (as it's supposedly hardwired into your brain) centres 'disorder' as a core & enduring characteristic of your self, over which the psych elite now have ideological & instrumental authority. This doesn’t sound like liberation.
If I’m sitting next to someone at a event whose politics I disagree with, rather than enter a debate with them, I've learnt to explore why they hold their views. That way I usually learn something intriging, while they feel heard. And overall its a far more pleasant & instructive evening.
September 28, 2025 at 7:38 PM
If I’m sitting next to someone at a event whose politics I disagree with, rather than enter a debate with them, I've learnt to explore why they hold their views. That way I usually learn something intriging, while they feel heard. And overall its a far more pleasant & instructive evening.
If you think expanding the mental health sector is the way to remedy growing societial suffering, you've drunk the cool aid. The expansion of that sector (its ideology & interventions) only worsens the problem. The solution is the right kind of social, economic & political change.
August 3, 2025 at 8:09 AM
If you think expanding the mental health sector is the way to remedy growing societial suffering, you've drunk the cool aid. The expansion of that sector (its ideology & interventions) only worsens the problem. The solution is the right kind of social, economic & political change.
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 👇
www.bmj.com/content/390/...
- We all appreciate this critical amendment 👇
www.bmj.com/content/390/...
Most people have no severe withdrawal from antidepressants, large review finds
Most people do not experience severe withdrawal when discontinuing antidepressants, and clinical guidelines should be updated to reflect this, say the UK authors of the largest review of the evidence ...
www.bmj.com
July 19, 2025 at 7:02 PM
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 👇
www.bmj.com/content/390/...
- We all appreciate this critical amendment 👇
www.bmj.com/content/390/...
"This flawed & misleading paper should at the very least be amended to reflect its clear limitations, with a formal acknowledgement by the authors. I will be writing to the Chief Medical Officer to this effect".
- Dr Simon Opher, Labour MP
www.standard.co.uk/comment/anti...
- Dr Simon Opher, Labour MP
www.standard.co.uk/comment/anti...
Don't believe the lies - antidepressant withdrawal is a real crisis
Many people have difficulties stopping antidepressants. Particularly if they have been taking these drugs for a long time, when they are at risk of suffering severe and long-lasting effects from withd...
www.standard.co.uk
July 15, 2025 at 2:35 PM
"This flawed & misleading paper should at the very least be amended to reflect its clear limitations, with a formal acknowledgement by the authors. I will be writing to the Chief Medical Officer to this effect".
- Dr Simon Opher, Labour MP
www.standard.co.uk/comment/anti...
- Dr Simon Opher, Labour MP
www.standard.co.uk/comment/anti...
Reposted by James Davies PhD
I think it is poor. He seems oblivious to the fact that there are longer-term RCTs on withdrawal, and that ANTLER was not included in the review's primary analysis! He writes with authority yet makes very basic errors.....
July 12, 2025 at 8:03 PM
I think it is poor. He seems oblivious to the fact that there are longer-term RCTs on withdrawal, and that ANTLER was not included in the review's primary analysis! He writes with authority yet makes very basic errors.....
My response in New York Times: “If you are looking at people on the drugs for eight weeks, you are not going to find withdrawal,” said James Davies “It’s like saying cocaine isn’t addictive because we did a study on people who had only been taking it for eight weeks"👇
www.nytimes.com/2025/07/09/h...
www.nytimes.com/2025/07/09/h...
New Research Questions Severity of Withdrawal From Antidepressants
www.nytimes.com
July 11, 2025 at 7:27 AM
My response in New York Times: “If you are looking at people on the drugs for eight weeks, you are not going to find withdrawal,” said James Davies “It’s like saying cocaine isn’t addictive because we did a study on people who had only been taking it for eight weeks"👇
www.nytimes.com/2025/07/09/h...
www.nytimes.com/2025/07/09/h...
I delivered a presentation yesterday in the Houses of Parliament, Westminster, on the over-prescribing of antidepressants. Here is one of my slides👇
July 11, 2025 at 7:25 AM
I delivered a presentation yesterday in the Houses of Parliament, Westminster, on the over-prescribing of antidepressants. Here is one of my slides👇
Researchers at Imperial College and King’s College London have been accused of endangering patient safety after publishing a study suggesting that most people do not experience severe withdrawal after coming off the drugs". #backfire
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/07...
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/07...
Scientists accused of downplaying dangers of antidepressants
Row breaks out over risk of patients experiencing severe withdrawals
www.telegraph.co.uk
July 9, 2025 at 10:09 PM
Researchers at Imperial College and King’s College London have been accused of endangering patient safety after publishing a study suggesting that most people do not experience severe withdrawal after coming off the drugs". #backfire
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/07...
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/07...
The word 'depression' is a catch-all phrase which, once you get to know a person deeply, tells us very little about the nuances, origins & substance of their experience. I find the phrase clinically unhelpful & the medicalised meanings with which it is laden regularly misleading.
July 1, 2025 at 6:58 AM
The word 'depression' is a catch-all phrase which, once you get to know a person deeply, tells us very little about the nuances, origins & substance of their experience. I find the phrase clinically unhelpful & the medicalised meanings with which it is laden regularly misleading.
As Robert Spitzer (chair of DSM-III) once told me about DSM-5: they created it to make money. As everyone would need to buy the new edition, the publisher, American Psychiatric Association, would make millions a year selling it. The same for DSM-6... New edition, familiar hustle.
June 28, 2025 at 7:37 AM
As Robert Spitzer (chair of DSM-III) once told me about DSM-5: they created it to make money. As everyone would need to buy the new edition, the publisher, American Psychiatric Association, would make millions a year selling it. The same for DSM-6... New edition, familiar hustle.
Nearly 40% of women have a "mental health condition" says survey. Can't we ditch that language & the ideology it propagates & rather say: such women are in emotional pain, often for obvious socio-relational reasons. This take obliges a different response.
www.theguardian.com/society/2025...
www.theguardian.com/society/2025...
One in four young people in England have mental health condition, NHS survey finds
Rates are higher in young women as in young men and mental ill health up across age groups, study shows
www.theguardian.com
June 27, 2025 at 12:53 PM
Nearly 40% of women have a "mental health condition" says survey. Can't we ditch that language & the ideology it propagates & rather say: such women are in emotional pain, often for obvious socio-relational reasons. This take obliges a different response.
www.theguardian.com/society/2025...
www.theguardian.com/society/2025...
Reposted by James Davies PhD
Psychology students, if you are looking for an example of conflicts of interest in research and theory development, look no further.
Maria A Oquendo, the new Chair of DSM-6 (yes it's coming) has received unrestricted educational grants and/or lecture fees form AstraZeneca, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Eli Lilly, Janssen, Otsuka, Pfizer, Sanofi-Aventis, and Shire. She receives royalties from the commercial use of....
June 22, 2025 at 7:44 AM
Psychology students, if you are looking for an example of conflicts of interest in research and theory development, look no further.
Maria A Oquendo, the new Chair of DSM-6 (yes it's coming) has received unrestricted educational grants and/or lecture fees form AstraZeneca, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Eli Lilly, Janssen, Otsuka, Pfizer, Sanofi-Aventis, and Shire. She receives royalties from the commercial use of....
June 22, 2025 at 7:32 AM
Maria A Oquendo, the new Chair of DSM-6 (yes it's coming) has received unrestricted educational grants and/or lecture fees form AstraZeneca, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Eli Lilly, Janssen, Otsuka, Pfizer, Sanofi-Aventis, and Shire. She receives royalties from the commercial use of....
Let's not call for more resilience, diagnoses, drugs, medicalisation & neurofication to address escalating rates of poor mental health, let's call for new social policy to tackle its social determinants & properly fund demedicalised psycho-social support. That's it in a nutshell.
June 21, 2025 at 6:52 AM
Let's not call for more resilience, diagnoses, drugs, medicalisation & neurofication to address escalating rates of poor mental health, let's call for new social policy to tackle its social determinants & properly fund demedicalised psycho-social support. That's it in a nutshell.
Pharma is using neurodivergence as an instrument of profit, establishment psychiatry is using it to make biological determinism great again, while the state is using it to exonerate the harms created by neoliberal social structure. The concept is ripe for conservative co-option.
June 18, 2025 at 6:35 AM
Pharma is using neurodivergence as an instrument of profit, establishment psychiatry is using it to make biological determinism great again, while the state is using it to exonerate the harms created by neoliberal social structure. The concept is ripe for conservative co-option.
Reposted by James Davies PhD
INVESTIGATION: 7% of England -3.8m people- have been on antidepressants for > 5 years 💊
While effective for some, long term use carries risks + raises chances of withdrawal when stopping, leaving some feeling "trapped" on the drugs @thetimes.com
www.thetimes.com/uk/healthcar...
While effective for some, long term use carries risks + raises chances of withdrawal when stopping, leaving some feeling "trapped" on the drugs @thetimes.com
www.thetimes.com/uk/healthcar...
A generation of women over 50 stuck taking antidepressants
A quarter of women in their fifties and sixties take antidepressants, and 15 per cent of women over 50 have been on them for longer than five years
www.thetimes.com
June 15, 2025 at 10:47 AM
INVESTIGATION: 7% of England -3.8m people- have been on antidepressants for > 5 years 💊
While effective for some, long term use carries risks + raises chances of withdrawal when stopping, leaving some feeling "trapped" on the drugs @thetimes.com
www.thetimes.com/uk/healthcar...
While effective for some, long term use carries risks + raises chances of withdrawal when stopping, leaving some feeling "trapped" on the drugs @thetimes.com
www.thetimes.com/uk/healthcar...
A 🧵thread on why increasing numbers of young people (especially men) are being captured by the right, by being wooed away from conventional career paths in favour of fast-track wealth schemes that claim to offer an escape from the 'matrix.'
June 15, 2025 at 7:19 AM
A 🧵thread on why increasing numbers of young people (especially men) are being captured by the right, by being wooed away from conventional career paths in favour of fast-track wealth schemes that claim to offer an escape from the 'matrix.'
A 🧵thread on why claiming 'psychiatry is just like any other medical specialty' glosses over major differences. It’s a convenient slogan; not an honest comparison. Here's why 👇
June 14, 2025 at 7:29 AM
A 🧵thread on why claiming 'psychiatry is just like any other medical specialty' glosses over major differences. It’s a convenient slogan; not an honest comparison. Here's why 👇
The neurofication of everyday life has been wonderful for the retrenchment of bio-psychiatry, the expansion of pharma profits & the depoliticisation of socially induced distress.
June 11, 2025 at 1:19 PM
The neurofication of everyday life has been wonderful for the retrenchment of bio-psychiatry, the expansion of pharma profits & the depoliticisation of socially induced distress.
Excited to be delivering a Keynote address this week at the European Network for Psychological Anthropology in Münster, Germany. If you're an academic working in this space, please join the network! It hosts some of the most innovative work in Mental Health... 👇 enpanthro.net
European Network for Psychological Anthropology
Visit the post for more.
enpanthro.net
June 9, 2025 at 12:53 PM
Excited to be delivering a Keynote address this week at the European Network for Psychological Anthropology in Münster, Germany. If you're an academic working in this space, please join the network! It hosts some of the most innovative work in Mental Health... 👇 enpanthro.net
"Unexpressed emotions will never die. They are buried alive and will come forth later in uglier ways."
– Sigmund Freud
– Sigmund Freud
May 27, 2025 at 5:56 PM
"Unexpressed emotions will never die. They are buried alive and will come forth later in uglier ways."
– Sigmund Freud
– Sigmund Freud
🧵I recently watched the BBC documentary "Change Your Mind, Change Your Life" (it films therapists in action), & found many aspects of it frankly disturbing. Within minutes of meeting clients, therapists were making sweeping claims about their client's underlying psychology...1/7
May 25, 2025 at 6:40 AM
🧵I recently watched the BBC documentary "Change Your Mind, Change Your Life" (it films therapists in action), & found many aspects of it frankly disturbing. Within minutes of meeting clients, therapists were making sweeping claims about their client's underlying psychology...1/7
Therapists who do not listen & learn collaboratively & dialogically, but who instead impose thier prefabricated ideas, advice & meanings, do not heal people - they manipulate them. They do not help liberate, empower or enlighten: they oppress.
May 24, 2025 at 7:17 AM
Therapists who do not listen & learn collaboratively & dialogically, but who instead impose thier prefabricated ideas, advice & meanings, do not heal people - they manipulate them. They do not help liberate, empower or enlighten: they oppress.
Reposted by James Davies PhD
16 Pharma companies were sponsoring the recent Austrian Conference.
May 19, 2025 at 3:45 PM
16 Pharma companies were sponsoring the recent Austrian Conference.