Awais Aftab, MD

Here’s what the historic case of the Genain quadruplets reveals about some deeper, uncomfortable truths about American society.

Exploring the connection between trauma and the etiology of schizophrenia, and the ways this connection was historically interpreted in the case of the Genain quadruplets.

“The Genain quadruplets have really gone down in psychiatric history for being the ‘poster girls’ for psychiatric genetics.”

Awais Aftab, MD, and author Audrey Clare Farley, PhD, discuss Girls and Their Monsters: The Genain Quadruplets and the Making of Madness in America.

Awais Aftab, MD, interviews Audrey Clare Farley, PhD, author of Girls and Their Monsters: The Genain Quadruplets and the Making of Madness in America.

"Psychiatry is in a real stew now, with every kind of foundational question up for grabs."

This book asks us to reexamine anxiety…

Descartes said that if you want to know the mind, the only place to start was in the dissecting room.

"There are a number of themes in my book, and one of them is to subtly bust the myth that people who get diagnosed with serious mental illness cannot recover."

A lawyer weighs in on pharmaceutical corruption and involuntary psychiatric care.

Does a computational approach to the mind pave the way for practicing a biopsychosocial psychiatry?

The 2022 annual meeting of the Association for the Advancement of Philosophy and Psychiatry was full of transformative, interdisciplinary dialogues. Here are some highlights.

“This model challenges the idea that many neurodivergent individuals necessarily have neurological or cognitive pathologies, as well as the idea that neurotypicals are necessarily superior...”

Sami Timimi, MD, shares his thoughts on alienation and ADHD, and what role current systems of mental health play.

Wouter Kusters, PhD, uses his experiences with psychosis to better inform his philosophy. What can we learn from him?

Does psychiatry need criticism in order to improve?

What is the real-world clinical efficacy of SSRIs and other antidepressant medications compared to RCT placebos?

How can cognitive behavioral therapy be adapted to different cultures and address larger social issues?

Is neurodivergence to be cured or is it a healthy part of our social ecology?

What can philosophy learn from madness?

How should the sociopolitical nature of PTSD as a diagnosis inform our understanding of trauma?

Travelling the middle road between skepticism and scientism in psychiatric research and treatment.

Is depression the same today as it was in the 17th century? Is it the same thing in Nigeria as it is in the United States? One of the foremost historians of psychiatry weighs in.

In this installment of Conversations in Critical Psychiatry, a former United Nations Special Rapporteur discusses the need for a change in the status quo of mental health care.

In this conversation, a former APA president discusses mystical and meditative experiences, reconciling psychoanalysis and neuroscience, and tensions surrounding the medical model.

A lawyer discusses how the legal system treats (and mistreats) those with mental illnesses.

Beyond earning a medical degree, completing residency, and obtaining board certification and licensure, a psychiatrist's career grows to be illustrious with wisdom, curiosity, intellect, aesthetic sensitivity, compassion, empathy, generosity, and more.

Patient perspectives in academic discourse in psychiatry have historically been a neglected area. What are some of the consequences and implications of this absence? How has this affected both psychiatry and those who have been excluded? These questions and more are discussed.

General medical illness can contribute to affective disorders in elderly patients. Treating the medical illness is an integral part in treating depression in these patients.

How can we ensure that our attributions of meaning are not simply instances of creative storytelling?