Show Notes
Welcome to PsychEd, the psychiatry podcast for medical learners, by medical learners. This is our inaugural book club episode centred around the book Mind Fixers by Anne Harrington. Mind Fixers is by the Harvard historian Anne Harrington, and came out from Norton in 2022. It reframes the “biological turn” in later twentieth century psychiatry with a history of the discipline from the later nineteenth century forward. Harrington argues that the biological turn had relatively little to do with new scientific advances, and came instead from a need to separate psychiatry from the increasingly unpopular public image of the discipline’s previous, “Freudian” age. To make this argument, she starts with the anatomic research of turn-of-the-century figures like Kraepelin, and how this generally failed to explain important mental illnesses. She traces the emergence of “Freudian” or psychological approaches to mental illness to the high point of their dominance in the mid twentieth century, and then their decline, as their inadequacy with respect to things like bipolar disorder and schizophrenia became increasingly clear, and their emphasis on childhood experience stigmatized families. Biological psychiatry is then a way to restore the fields’s respectability as as branch of medicine, but according to Harrington, there is not much transformative innovation to go along with this rebrand; and she emphasizes that the psychopharmacology revolution which gave us the first antipsychotics, MAOIS, tricyclics, and the receptor model of mental illness, actually happened during the heyday of psychoanalysis. The members of our team involved in this discussion are: Sara Abrahamson - MS2 at the University of Toronto Dr. Kate Braithwaite - medical doctor from South Africa Dr. Wendy MacMillan-Wang - PGY4 psychiatry resident at the University of Manitoba Dr. Alastair Morrison - PGY1 psychiatry resident at McMaster University Dr. Gaurav Sharma - staff psychiatrist working in Nunavut, Canada Audio editing by: Dr. Angad Singh - PGY1 psychiatry resident at the University of Toronto Our discussion was structured around four themes: (03:15) - Psychiatry and Economic Incentives (19:33) - Psychiatry and Parenting (28:40) - Biological Psychiatry and its Alternatives (52:05) - Psychiatry and Social Control If you enjoyed this episode, consider listening to our episodes about: History of Psychiatry with Dr. David Castle Critical Psychiatry with Dr. Elia Abi-Jaoude and Lucy Costa For more PsychEd, follow us on Instagram (@psyched.podcast), X (@psychedpodcast), and Facebook (PsychEd Podcast). You can provide feedback by email at [email protected]. For more information, visit our website at psychedpodcast.org.
More from PsychEd: Educational Psychiatry Podcast
Welcome to PsychEd, the psychiatry podcast for medical learners, by medical learners. This short episode covers medical considerations in eating disorders. Hosts: Dr. Shelly Palchick (PGY1) and Dr. Angad Singh (PGY3) Audio Editing: Dr. Angad Singh (PGY3) For more PsychEd, follow us on Instagram (@psyched.podcast), Facebook (PsychEd Podcast), X (@psychedpodcast), and Bluesky (@psychedpodcast.bsky.social). You can email us at [email protected] and visit our website at psychedpodcast.org.
Welcome to PsychEd, the psychiatry podcast for medical learners, by medical learners. This episode covers homelessness and mental illness with Dr. Vicky Stergiopoulos, senior scientist with the General Adult Psychiatry and Health Systems Division at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH). She is also a full professor in the Department of Psychiatry and the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation at the University of Toronto. She has served in several administrative roles, including vice-chair, clinical and innovation (2017-2022) and co-Director of the Division of Adult Psychiatry and Health Systems (2012-2017) in the Department of Psychiatry, as well as physician-in-chief at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (2016-2022), psychiatrist-in-chief at St. Michael’s Hospital (2011-2016) and medical director, Inner City Health Associates (2017-2011). Dr. Stergiopoulos completed her medical training at Dalhousie University and residency training in psychiatry at the University of Toronto. She holds a MHSc in health administration from the University of Toronto’s Institute for Health Policy, Management and Evaluation and completed director’s education training at the Rotman School of Management. The learning objectives for this episode are as follows: Define homelessness and housing insecurity and identify key social determinants that shape health outcomes in this population
Welcome to PsychEd, the psychiatry podcast for medical learners, by medical learners. This short episode covers the basics of CYP450 metabolism as it applies to psychotropic medication. Hosts: Dr. Celine Prell (PGY4), Dr. Angad Singh, (PGY3) Audio Editing: Dr. Celine Prell (PGY4), Dr. Angad Singh, (PGY3) For more PsychEd, follow us on Instagram (@psyched.podcast), Facebook (PsychEd Podcast), X (@psychedpodcast), and Bluesky (@psychedpodcast.bsky.social). You can email us at [email protected] and visit our website at psychedpodcast.org.
Welcome to PsychEd, the psychiatry podcast for medical learners, by medical learners. This episode covers Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) with Dr. Kenneth Fung and Dr. Iline Guan. Dr. Kenneth Fung is Staff Psychiatrist at the Toronto Western Hospital, University Health Network. He is Professor and Director of Global Mental Health with the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto. His research, teaching, and clinical interests include both cultural psychiatry and psychotherapy, especially ACT, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), and mindfulness. He is the Block Co-coordinator of the Cultural Psychiatry Core Seminars for psychiatry residents, and the seminar co-lead and psychotherapy supervisor in CBT at the University Health Network. Dr. Guan is a psychiatrist who practices outpatient general psychiatry at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto, where she works in the Mood and Anxiety Ambulatory Services and the Northern Psychiatric Outreach Program. She also works with Inner City Health Associates in downtown Toronto. She has had training across various psychotherapy modalities, including psychodynamic therapy, CBT, DBT, IPT, MBSR/MBCT, and ACT. She is involved in resident teaching and psychotherapy supervision at the University of Toronto, and has implemented a pilot ACT group program in the Mood and Anxiety clinic at CAMH. The learning objectives for this episode are as follows: Describe the theoretical model and core processes underlying ACT
Welcome to PsychEd, the psychiatry podcast for medical learners, by medical learners. This short episode covers factitious disorder. Hosts: Jo Kikukawa (MS3), Dr. Kate Braithwaite Audio editing: Dr. Kate Braithwaite References: 1. American Psychiatric Association. Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders: DSM-5, text revision (DSM-5-TR). 5th ed. Washington, D.C.: American Psychiatric Association Publishing; 2022. 2. Irwin, M. R., Bursch, B., & Solomon, D. (2025, July 21). Factitious disorder imposed on self (Munchausen syndrome). UpToDate. https://www.uptodate.com/contents/factitious-disorder-imposed-on-self-munchausen-syndrome?search=factitious+disorder&source=search_result&selectedTitle=1~90&usage_type=default&display_rank=1&searchCorrelationId=681d447e-f8e6-4338-b905-ff937cad5972&searchCorrelationTerm=factitious+disorder#H368608737 3. PsychDB. (2021, December). Factitious Disorder. Factitious Disorder - PsychDB 4. Roesler, T. A., & Jenny, C. (2026, June 12). Medical child abuse (Munchausen syndrome by proxy). UpToDate. https://www.uptodate.com/contents/medical-child-abuse-munchausen-syndrome-by-proxy?search=factitious+disorder&source=search_result&selectedTitle=3~90&usage_type=default&display_rank=3&searchCorrelationId=681d447e-f8e6-4338-b905-ff937cad5972&searchCorrelationTerm=factitious+disorder#H90255160 5. Yates, G., & Bass, C. (2017). The perpetrators of medical child abuse (Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy) - A systematic review of 796 cases. Child abuse & neglect, 72, 45–53. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2017.07.008 For more PsychEd, follow us on Instagram (@psyched.podcast), Facebook (PsychEd Podcast), X (@psychedpodcast), and Bluesky (@psychedpodcast.bsky.social). You can email us at [email protected] and visit our website at psychedpodcast.org.