Mad In America

What’s in a Label? New Studies Explore How People Talk About Disability and Mental Health
By Richard Sears

Emerging research suggests that debates over person-first and identity-first language cannot be resolved with a one-size-fits-all approach, as preferences differ across diagnoses and communities.

What's in a Label? New Studies Explore How People Talk About Disability and Mental Health This week, Mad in America examines four studies related to the use of language around disabilities and mental health diagnoses. The first finds that Emerging research suggests that debates over person-first and identity-first language cannot be resolved with a one-size-fits-all approach, as preferen...

Mad in Puerto Rico: In recent years, we have seen a rise in advocates, mental health professionals, and public policy specialists who push for increased provision of services for mothers experiencing postpartum depression and postpartum psychosis. At the same time, research continues to demonstrate that mothers are struggling. Mothers are now expected to balance their careers, their home, their relationships, and their own well-being, with a strong emphasis on appearances and presenting themselves well. While these are common factors that accompany motherhood today, all of them are frequently set aside by psychiatry and mental health experts in favor of the pathologization and medicalization of motherhood. These often occur in a context frequently marked by obstetric violence and coercion, and threats to reproductive rights. This is why I believe they often evolve into psychiatric coercion. https://www.madinamerica.com/2026/06/on-the-path-to-the-psychiatrization-and-pathologization-of-motherhood/