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Prof. James Davies

@drjamesdaviesbskys.bsky.social
1.5K followers 226 following 279 posts

Dad - Husband - Writer Professor of Psychology & Medical Anthropology (Ph.D @UniofOxford). Practicing Psychotherapist (UKCP). Author of Cracked (Icon Books) & Sedated (Atlantic Books)

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Prof. James Davies @drjamesdaviesbskys.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
The sharpest rises in the proportion of young people claiming disability benefits for ADHD and autism occur in the most affluent areas of England, says Nuffield Report, with a quarter of 16-24 years old now screening positive for ADHD.... Discuss. www.theguardian.com/society/2026...
theguardian.com
Young people’s Pip claims for ADHD and autism ‘rising fastest in affluent areas’
Experts say trend across England probably reflects swifter access to diagnoses as wealthier families go private
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Reposted by Prof. James Davies
Prof. James Davies @drjamesdaviesbskys.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
My new paper on the three foundational pillars of psychotherapy, and how to organise clinical training around them. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
tandfonline.com
The Three Pillars Model of psychotherapy: A new integrative framework to guide early-career clinical supervision and practice
Integrative psychotherapy is now the most common form of psychotherapeutic practice. Yet, research shows that early-career therapists often struggle to integrate diverse theoretical models in ways ...
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Prof. James Davies @drjamesdaviesbskys.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
I know many people will find this documentary difficult to stomach, especially those for whom 'ADHD' is central to thier identity. But there's no evidence its a biologically rooted condition. ADHD is a phrase used to describe some behaviours. It's not a thing. Below👇 www.channel4.com/programmes/t...
channel4.com
The Great ADHD Myth?
Psychiatrist Max Pemberton challenges conventional thinking on ADHD
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Prof. James Davies @drjamesdaviesbskys.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
My new paper on the three foundational pillars of psychotherapy, and how to organise clinical training around them. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
tandfonline.com
The Three Pillars Model of psychotherapy: A new integrative framework to guide early-career clinical supervision and practice
Integrative psychotherapy is now the most common form of psychotherapeutic practice. Yet, research shows that early-career therapists often struggle to integrate diverse theoretical models in ways ...
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Reposted by Prof. James Davies
Martin Plöderl @ploederl.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
Excellent paper by @drjamesdaviesbskys.bsky.social on three foundational principles in psychotherapy. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
tandfonline.com
The Three Pillars Model of psychotherapy: A new integrative framework to guide early-career clinical supervision and practice
Integrative psychotherapy is now the most common form of psychotherapeutic practice. Yet, research shows that early-career therapists often struggle to integrate diverse theoretical models in ways ...
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Prof. James Davies @drjamesdaviesbskys.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
Medication-free mental health units are defying all expectations - the outcomes are good.... the larger dataset indicated superiority for 'med free treatment' in the full sample and noninferiority in sensitivity analyses". t.co/uG2ZYJx1is
t.co
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/00207640251390930
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Prof. James Davies @drjamesdaviesbskys.bsky.social · 13/07/2026
If two psychiatrists disagree as to whether a patient should be diagnosed with ADHD, there's no objective biomarker, laboratory test, brain scan, genetic test or physiological measure to determine who is correct... Psychiatry falls short of the rest of medicine....
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Prof. James Davies @drjamesdaviesbskys.bsky.social · 05/07/2026
'As provision of basic needs (housing, health, education, employment) continues to atrophy, [Neuro-identitarianism] resistance increasingly takes an individualised, myopic form, dissipating collective pressure that might otherwise demand the system be fixed.' www.madintheuk.com/2026/06/on-a...
madintheuk.com
On Alienation and the Chimeric Promise of Neuro-Identitarianism - Mad in the UK
a systemic psychotherapist, makes the case that human distress needs to be understood in its relational and social context.
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Prof. James Davies @drjamesdaviesbskys.bsky.social · 08/05/2026
As far as I can tell none of the recent attempts by the psych-status quo to develop tapering protocols (40 years too late) have included any input from the vast number of patients left to learn alone how to taper safely, which is why the protocols already look wildly out of touch....
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Prof. James Davies @drjamesdaviesbskys.bsky.social · 06/05/2026
"Despite the superficial resonance between MAHA and progressive critiques of psychiatry, the differences between them could not be more pronounced—nor more consequential". newrepublic.com/article/1918...
newrepublic.com
RFK Jr.’s Mental Health Bait and Switch
The newly anointed HHS secretary is weaponizing legitimate anger at the failures of current psychiatric care to gut public services, abandon poor and disabled people, and expand the police state.
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Prof. James Davies @drjamesdaviesbskys.bsky.social · 06/05/2026
The two politicians in the U.S. who are most critical of pharma corruption (Bernie Sanders & Robert F. Kennedy Jr.) come from opposite ends of the political spectrum. Corruption in healthcare should concern us all, no matter our politics.
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Prof. James Davies @drjamesdaviesbskys.bsky.social · 25/04/2026
The psychiatric-status-quo loves to blame the critical community for the rise of MAHA. But the status-quo is far more responsible, as it's behaviour (which I summarised in Cracked) has helped sow wide public distrust in healthcare & science, something which MAHA thrives upon.
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Prof. James Davies @drjamesdaviesbskys.bsky.social · 10/03/2026
The dominance of the medical model in mental health provision has driven & exacerbated mental health disability by generating poor outcomes, low recovery rates & growing iatrogenic harm. This is why I'm bemused by disability activists who ardently support it....1/2
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Prof. James Davies @drjamesdaviesbskys.bsky.social · 06/03/2026
A pioneer of autism research is asking us to rethink the diagnosis, only viewing as autistic those diagnosed in early childhood (usually before 3 or 5) with severe intellectual/language impairments. Everyone else with the label may be suffering from something else... www.tes.com/magazine/tea...
tes.com
Uta Frith: why I no longer think autism is a spectrum
The autism spectrum has widened to the point of collapse, affecting how teachers should support autistic pupils in the classroom, researcher Uta Frith tells Helen Amass
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Prof. James Davies @drjamesdaviesbskys.bsky.social · 27/02/2026
I'm writing a series of articles on psychotherapy, social justice, the 'social unconscious' and how therapists may better integrate what I call a "socially informed" perspective in their work. The clinical application of these ideas is really undeveloped in the psych-professions. What should I read?
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Prof. James Davies @drjamesdaviesbskys.bsky.social · 24/02/2026
In this article Lucy Foulkes misses the mark. It's not that we're "over-diagnosing mental illness", as she suggests, it's that we're over-medicalising & over-depoliticising widespread social suffering as requiring psych rather than structural solutions. www.theguardian.com/books/2026/f...
theguardian.com
Are we really overdiagnosing mental illness?
It’s tempting to dismiss the proliferation of labels as a fad, but there’s more to this phenomenon than a simple culture-war reading allows
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Prof. James Davies @drjamesdaviesbskys.bsky.social · 07/01/2026
When you educate an entire generation to believe that "anything is possible with hard work", and then build an economic system that is rigged against most hard-working people ever achieving any notable wealth or 'success', how can widespread anxiety not be an inevitable result?
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Prof. James Davies @drjamesdaviesbskys.bsky.social · 22/12/2025
How often it is that a young person’s pain (self-harm; eating problems) is a desperate attack, via the self, on a dysfunctional family, idea, school or wider system; a plea for systemic change. But we rarely see it like that - instead we pathologise them & treat *their* disorder.
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Prof. James Davies @drjamesdaviesbskys.bsky.social · 08/12/2025
'Targeting' refers to the way an ideology redirects people’s anger & grievances away from their true sources (i.e. inequality) & toward groups or objects the ideology wants to blame, even when they're unconnected to the problem. This device is a favourite among many deflecting despots.
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Prof. James Davies @drjamesdaviesbskys.bsky.social · 07/12/2025
"The choice is not between autism or nothing, but rather between autism & about a dozen other diagnostic possibilities," says Aftab..... And that’s precisely the problem with psychiatry; the logic reduces distressing human experience to a menu of predefined pathologising categories, & 'nothing' else
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Prof. James Davies @drjamesdaviesbskys.bsky.social · 07/12/2025
We often discuss how psych-diagnosis 'opens the door to care'. But let's talk about how it regularly shuts it, via 'diagnostic overshadowing’: when physical complaints get wrongly attributed to 'mental illness', with examinations & treatments being consequently delayed or denied.
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Reposted by Prof. James Davies
Prof. James Davies @drjamesdaviesbskys.bsky.social · 07/12/2025
The proliferation of psych-diagnoses isn't leading young people to 'organise against state & fascist oppression' its sadly enabling them to better align with (via drugs & minor accommodations) the dominant structures of contemporary neoliberal society. You'll never diagnose your way to liberation.
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Prof. James Davies @drjamesdaviesbskys.bsky.social · 07/12/2025
The proliferation of psych-diagnoses isn't leading young people to 'organise against state & fascist oppression' its sadly enabling them to better align with (via drugs & minor accommodations) the dominant structures of contemporary neoliberal society. You'll never diagnose your way to liberation.
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Prof. James Davies @drjamesdaviesbskys.bsky.social · 05/12/2025
Mind your Language.......We’re not 'over-diagnosing mental health problems' - we’re 'over-medicalising human suffering'. The distiction matters! - My new blog on Mad in UK 👇👇 www.madintheuk.com/2025/12/over...
madintheuk.com
Over-Medicalisation, Not Over-Diagnosis: Reclaiming our Critical Language in a Shifting Political Climate. - Mad in the UK
Linguistic discipline keeps the dialogue grounded in reality: suffering is real, extensive, socially produced and deserving of intervention.
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Prof. James Davies @drjamesdaviesbskys.bsky.social · 04/12/2025
The Baby Boomers (who had far easier paths to wealth & stability) are the ones most likely to call Gen Z the 'snowflake generation.' Yet it was Boomer-era politics that entrenched neoliberalism, & its subsequent harms, so a more conciliatory stance toward those inheriting those harms seems warranted
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Prof. James Davies @drjamesdaviesbskys.bsky.social · 04/12/2025
I don't think "mental health conditions are being over-diagnosed" but that "real suffering is being over-medicalised". These are very different things. The former tries to justify cutting support, but the latter does not: it acknowledges real suffering but asks for different (psychosocial) provision
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Prof. James Davies @drjamesdaviesbskys.bsky.social · 08/10/2025
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.
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Prof. James Davies @drjamesdaviesbskys.bsky.social · 28/09/2025
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.
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Prof. James Davies @drjamesdaviesbskys.bsky.social · 03/08/2025
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.
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Prof. James Davies @drjamesdaviesbskys.bsky.social · 19/07/2025
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/...
bmj.com
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 ...
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Prof. James Davies @drjamesdaviesbskys.bsky.social · 15/07/2025
"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...
standard.co.uk
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...
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Reposted by Prof. James Davies
Prof. James Davies @drjamesdaviesbskys.bsky.social · 12/07/2025
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.....
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Prof. James Davies @drjamesdaviesbskys.bsky.social · 11/07/2025
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...
nytimes.com
New Research Questions Severity of Withdrawal From Antidepressants
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Prof. James Davies @drjamesdaviesbskys.bsky.social · 11/07/2025
I delivered a presentation yesterday in the Houses of Parliament, Westminster, on the over-prescribing of antidepressants. Here is one of my slides👇
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Prof. James Davies @drjamesdaviesbskys.bsky.social · 09/07/2025
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...
telegraph.co.uk
Scientists accused of downplaying dangers of antidepressants
Row breaks out over risk of patients experiencing severe withdrawals
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Prof. James Davies @drjamesdaviesbskys.bsky.social · 01/07/2025
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.
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Prof. James Davies @drjamesdaviesbskys.bsky.social · 28/06/2025
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.
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Prof. James Davies @drjamesdaviesbskys.bsky.social · 27/06/2025
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...
theguardian.com
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
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Reposted by Prof. James Davies
Dr Chris Forman @drcjforman.bsky.social · 22/06/2025
Psychology students, if you are looking for an example of conflicts of interest in research and theory development, look no further.
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Prof. James Davies @drjamesdaviesbskys.bsky.social · 22/06/2025
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....
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Prof. James Davies @drjamesdaviesbskys.bsky.social · 21/06/2025
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.
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Prof. James Davies @drjamesdaviesbskys.bsky.social · 18/06/2025
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.
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Prof. James Davies @drjamesdaviesbskys.bsky.social · 15/06/2025
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.'
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Prof. James Davies @drjamesdaviesbskys.bsky.social · 14/06/2025
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 👇
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Prof. James Davies @drjamesdaviesbskys.bsky.social · 11/06/2025
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.
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Prof. James Davies @drjamesdaviesbskys.bsky.social · 09/06/2025
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
enpanthro.net
European Network for Psychological Anthropology
Visit the post for more.
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Prof. James Davies @drjamesdaviesbskys.bsky.social · 27/05/2025
"Unexpressed emotions will never die. They are buried alive and will come forth later in uglier ways." – Sigmund Freud
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Prof. James Davies @drjamesdaviesbskys.bsky.social · 25/05/2025
🧵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
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Prof. James Davies @drjamesdaviesbskys.bsky.social · 24/05/2025
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.
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