Today on social media I see an uprising of anger against Western psychiatry and its 19th- and 20th-century practices used to address mental distress and extreme experiences. I notice movements in social media groups that support people in new frameworks of understanding. At the same time, many practitioners realize that their biomedical training does not fit the spirit of our times: there are psychiatrists and psychologists who question the original diagnoses of their professions. Across Europe, America, and Australia, there are new practices set up by mental health service providers who want to see the status quo changed. Colleagues are reevaluating the nature of human consciousness and subtle energy, and they want to end stigma and the myth of labels. They are listening more closely to ancient wisdoms of indigenous people. I wrote this article to acknowledge our dilemma between challenging frameworks of knowledge, to explore the gap between different perspectives, and to suggest that we need a cultural U-turn toward more sensitive training in our educational institutions.
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