What is mentalhealthaffairs.blog⁉️
What’s the Mental Health Affairs difference?
Writing on mental health is a dime a dozen. There are so many choices out there on the internet for readers. So, with this said, how does the name mentalhealthaffairs.blog signal the critical shift readers are seeking about recovery.
History & Background
This question requires some history. Similar to the looming crisis over the future of mental health treatment, during the Holocaust, the Nazi’s were fixated on answering questions too. The most infamous question, or answer, was the final solution. It is no mystery how Jewish people were treated by the Nazi’s. But less known is how the mentally ill were treated by Nazi medical interventionists, I would hazard to use the word doctors.
The urgency to shift the manner in which treatment is delivered is still a matter of life or death for many without adequate services and access to information. During the Second World War, the Nazi’s termed their government body for managing the final solution of the Jewish question as the office of Jewish affairs.
Here at Mental Health Affairs, we choose to remember the voices of our not so distant history and legacies of people that survived during institutionalization and other medical & psychiatric interventions that maimed souls and destroyed futures. In doing so, we chose to re-appropriate the Nazi phraseology “Jewish affairs” for our purposes. Together we will re-define the manner in which mental health is treated at the very level of language.
Our Philosophy
Here at mentalhealthaffairs.org, we believe people carry diagnoses, they are not defined by them or limited by the branding of any clinician reading the DSM 5 or any manual or philosophy that puts boundaries and establishes a so called prognosis around the future of individuals or a group of people. Such limited and superficial writing on mental health is what this blog aims to avoid and conversely chooses to defy openly with its domain name.
Our Mission & Vision
Ultimately, after centuries of torture & mistreatment due to a fundamental gap in research in mental health and related fields we are taking the ethical high ground and delivering information that is only person centered and leave it at your doorstep without harming this vulnerable population further.
Now is the time for an urgent critique of existing bodies of knowledge out there. Here, we will challenge the experts, disrupt their hegemonic domination of the discourse, and suggest a better plan for people carrying a mental health diagnosis or struggling in their life with personal battles due to not being armed with the right information.
Mental Health Affairs is mainly for information purposes only – Materials on this website are not intended to be a substitute for professional advice, diagnosis, medical treatment, or therapy. Always seek the advice of your physician or qualified mental health provider with any questions you may have regarding any mental health symptom or medical condition. Never disregard professional psychological or medical advice nor delay in seeking professional advice or treatment because of something you have read on this website.
Blogposts – All posts and information shared here are totally individual opinions and no any intention to harm or mislead any individual.
Mental Health Affairs aims to promote interest among individuals who are involved in studying human behaviour and the mind – This website makes no representations as to the accuracy or completeness of any information on this website or found by following any links from here. Mental Health Affairs will not be liable for any errors or omissions in this information, nor for the availability of this information. Mental Health Affairs will not be liable for any losses, injuries or damages resulting from the display or use of this information.
All original images and articles are copyright of their respective owners and no copyright infringement is intended – This site is in no way trying to infringe on the copyrights or businesses of any entities. Images and texts are owned by their respective copyright owners. Where possible, the appropriate credits are given. However, due to image alterations, ownership of many images cannot be verified. Where ownership is known, credit is duly given.
News and press articles are owned by their respective copyright owner – Where possible the appropriate credit or source of the article is given.
Mental Health Affairs strives for accuracy and fairness – If you see something that doesn’t look right, please let us know.
We may suspend or withdraw the website – Our website is available free of charge. We do not guarantee that our site, or any content on it, will always be available or be uninterrupted.
Should you have an issue on any of the content here, feel free to contact its founder: Maxwellguttman@gmail.com
Family Support NAMI article
Lost Chapter of UOW: Bombs over New England University
The next step in Contesting Admission seemed rather obvious to me. Pummel the English Department into submission. In the words of President George W. Bush, this will be “shock and awe”. The plan was to bombard the department with paperwork over all kinds, inundating…
The Kindness Rocks Project
The Kindness Rocks Project, founded by Megan Murphy, is about discovering the beauty and profound possibilities of hope in acts of kindness, and has become a grassroots movement. Megan Murphy is the author of A Pebble For Your Thoughts and goes on to explain…
Who exactly is J. Peters?
Many people ask me, Max: Who is J. Peters? For a long time now I felt strangely about using my given name, Max E. Guttman under publications. I’ve felt even more strongly about this concerning publications surrounding the events that unfolded at “New London”…
University on Watch: Crisis in the Academy
After University on Watch: Crisis in the Academy was first published, I felt extremely uneasy publicizing it. Oh, sure, I felt the book was well written, and captured the message I intended to pass on to the public. And yet, that feeling of uneasiness…
The future of J. Peters and the next book
There is no mistaking it. The Revisionist, the third installment in the J. Peters series has run into excessive costly delays, and is now, fully stalled. This is not writers block. The story is simply unfinished. J. Peters life has not run its course…
This is the Ending I Always Wanted to Write for University on Watch
The dew on campus was moist with retribution. Or so it felt when Jacques Peters kneeled on on the grass and felt the wetness between his fingers. “It’s over, I’ve won” Jacques whispered to himself, as his eyes lay fixed on the bottom of…
The J Peters Reality Tour🤷♂️
I’ve been getting a lot of questions, and I mean a lot, about the status of the J Peters reality tour. Let’s talk about it here and put to rest any outstanding rumors surrounding this historic event. The J Peters reality tour can best…
The Revisionist✍️: Rise of the Prosumer (Chapters 1&2)
By J. Peters Preface The Revisionist describes events I experienced beginning in 2008, the year that I graduated from college at New England University. However, the actual writing began shortly after the completion of Small Fingernails Even Less Love, which chronicles the impact of…
Decriminalizing Mental Illness👿
This article was originally published in NAMI’s the Advocate Spring 2019
The Revisionist: rise of the prosumer, axioms, and future directions in Mental Health Affairs
When I first began writing about mental health, and topics concerning my own experience with schizophrenia, I was a bit naive. I thought since I lived through “this”, meaning, the various incidents, challenges, and pitfalls of my disorder people who struggled with similar hazards…
Interview with J. Peters: Small Fingernails Even Less Love
Interviewer: I am here with J. Peters, author of University on Watch and Small Fingernails. Mr. Peters, can you say something about the difference between these two books? J. Peters: These two books couldnt be more different, and yet, in the end, they are…
Mentally Ill in the Catskills of New York😇
I have traveled all over the world. Before, after, and during my most psychotic episodes, I have been privileged in the realm of touring, travel and seeing the world at large. After I attempted suicide in high school, my parents took me on a…
The Prosumer Technocrat🔢🔀
I’m am very much public about my status as a prosumer in the mental health community. I’ve outed myself time and again. People ask me about my book series all the time, which is also very much congruent with my prosumer identity: “Max, what…
University on Watch: Crisis in the Academy, The Second Editon
To get right to it, I always felt University on Watch was unfinished. I am also a writer who believes in delivering information as fast as possible. Most of the blog posts which became chapters in the book were assembled to go, and the…
Lost UOW chapter: $50 dollar bills for Recovery
My perception was shifting everyday. At first the shift was gradual, eventually dramatically altered. The community appeared different. People seemed to behave differently and have different motives. All I wanted was to connect with the changing world around me in Liberty. This was increasingly…
Lost Chapter of University on Watch: The History of Rhetorical Theory
The success of Contesting Admission hinged upon my ability to make such waves in the English department that my status as a student could no longer be ignored. The department was resisting and defending their decision at all costs. This resistance included their decision…
Lost Chapter of University on Watch “The Dying Man”
After moving into my new home, I truly wanted to make it place of self-care, joy, and peace. Things went so poorly where I had previously resided, that I didn’t want to take anymore chances with my living environment. Shortly after moving in, I…
New “Lost Chapter” Chapter of University on Watch: Register Co-sign Arrest
Handcuffed in front of my house, with broken glass from my car all over the place, I knew I had entered into a whole new phase of contesting admission. This new phase would not only take all my strength, but new mental powers which…
What keeps me pushing forward?
I am field instructor for graduate and undergraduate student in social work going for their bachelors and masters degrees. I am also a professor of social work in a university. As a field instructor, I am the point person in the field where social…
Seeking the help of a Tertiary Care Hospital
As a clinical social worker, I am always interested in the level of care abstraction that defines systems in medical and mental health facilities. As a person who has had more hospitalizations than he can remember, I have learned how to navigate and understand…
My Ferret Clausewitz and my last pet in Binghamton
My last pet in Binghamton was a ferret named Clausewitz. While I often don’t speak of Clausewitz openly anymore, I feel it is time to reflect on his memory. During the past few years, and after re-entering the social world and bridging new connections,…
The Revisionist✍️
Far too many stories and firsthand accounts of recovery are terminal and end with a cure or picturesque life for the consumer of services or “sick” person. This recovery narrative is different. This is a story about struggle, ongoing collateral pushback from friends, and…
Small Fingernails, Even Less Love💕
Sometimes, love finds us; other times, love is a trauma that hurls itself into the very fabric of our lives. My experiences at New London University explain how traumatic events and life’s unfortunate turns can become amplified and overshadow our understanding of how love…
New Freedom: The Brave Experiment (British English Edition🇬🇧)
The Formation of a Post-National Society (PNS). This is a written prelude to our inevitable FUTURE. Humanity wakes up… Opening its eyes to a society that it believes it closes itself off to its own potential. No distinction needs to be made regarding the…
The Trilogy 📚3️⃣
The time is upon us! I need to address the ongoing rumors circulating around my writing. Ever since I have announced a second novella, Small Fingernails, Even Less Love 💕 , there has been undeniable chatter in the literary world. Upon hearing the new…
🅱️iologic Theory
Research must be wholly beneficial to the public, it must be free and rife for regard for society. As a prosumer and mental health interventionist researcher, I have sought nothing but a bold new model that works for the masses. Therapy that is both…
The Cancer in Academia and Mental Health Research
I have made no secret about my skepticism in the clinical value of new research in mental health in the last decade. I am just not certain we are targeting the right areas or bodies of underdeveloped research and moving forward in the important…
The Right to Fail
The right to fail. To live our lives as people that are flawed, diagnosed, mentally ill the the way we see fit to do so. In New York State, and many other states in the United States, unless you are mandated, or in a…
Use of metaphors in the therapy office 🕵️♂️
If you are a patient, or psychotherapist, the odds are you have been encouraged to use metaphors in the therapy room. I teach family therapy at the university level, and have been a family therapist for a decade. I can say that this overemphasis…
Pedagogy and Practice for Social Workers🎓
I am a very, very passionate learner. I believe in education, and anyone who reads my writing understands my love of learning. Partially due to a trauma suffered in my experience in higher education as an undergraduate, I learned to love the pursuit of…
I am J. Peters and this is my story: University on Watch👁
I am a rhetoric scholar and a person with lived experience with schizophrenia. I am also a prosumer. My identity aside, the status of Disability studies and narratives, memoirs, and stories that aim to reclaim the writers lost authorial voice are in demand. These…
The Mobility of Recovery
There is an undeniable mobility to recovery. Moving forward in your path to health and healing requires an inertia. From rate of recovery, the very speed and velocity required to push life’s pash setbacks, to identifying a sustainable pace, is a space and feat…
Learned Helplessness Must be Stopped🔴
One of my biggest struggles as a social worker in the human services is challenging learned helplessness. Learned helplessness is a phenomena in which clients, patients, or any person connected to a larger system becomes so conditioned by it that they begin to need…
The Titanic
I have a framed portrait of the Titanic in my mental health private practice. Many people ask me: What does the Titanic have to do with having good mental health and practicing self-management? The answer is, it has everything to do with exhibiting good…
Continuing Education 🔄
I was asked to write down three things I cannot live without on a piece of scrap paper for a seminar on interpretation. At that time, I was floridly psychotic, self-referential, tangential, and totally detached from what was happening to me, around me, and…
The power of Social Work language: a linguistic analysis🔠
The power of the social work language is rooted in the very words we social workers use everyday. There is no question, that the language of the social work profession is a limitless lexicon that is miraculously positive in its composition, ability to connect…
Interview with Author of the “V-papers” and founder of Mental Health Affairs, Max E. Guttman, LCSW
Interviewer: Please tell us, Max E., why do you insist on writing about mental health when it continues to be so widely talked about and covered by talented authors in recent years? Mr. Guttman: I write because my message continues to be different than…
New Freedom: The Brave Experiment [British English Edition🇬🇧]
A Manifesto™️ The Formation of a Post-National Society: A Written Prelude to an Inevitable Reality The human wakes up; opening his or her eyes to a society that he believes closes its eyes to the entity’s potential. No distinction needs to be made regarding…
In Solidarity with J Peters
Known as University on Watch day, February 28th, honors the legacy of J. Peters in academe. In 2008, J. Peters put New London University “on watch”, forever altering the English language and the Humanities in Higher Education. Mr. Peters wanted nothing more than to…
Behind the Mind with Kevin Meiselman
Kevin Meiselman interviews J Peters in his podcast, Behind the Mind: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/behind-the-mind/id1455163317
A Nation Divided Learns to Heal
What Does WW2 history inform todays world about Macro-Level healing in a global context? The Psychological Occupation of France In 1940 France fell to overwhelming German military superiority. The fall of France however and the unfolding French surrender are two very different stories. In…
A Fond Farewell to Mary✌️
The pictures posted are from a secretly videotaped meeting with my care manager and his director at a non-profit agency in Westchester NY. For three months, I have been calling and trying to reach my care manager. I left message after message for weeks…
Discharge Planning: Re- Entry into the Community🚸
I’ve experienced a number of serious planned and unplanned hospitalizations and subsequent discharges. Medical, psychiatric, physical rehabilitation, you name it, I’ve been discharged from it. Discharge planning should always begin from the moment you enter the facility and become a patient in the hospital….
Join our Team🌎⚖️📰
Recovery Now’s Division of Mental Health Affairs is about to move in an exciting new direction. The former division is now officially the Office of Mental Health Affairs (OMHA). The new office is signing on writers, editors (SEO preferred), and site administrators to help…
A Fond Farewell to Mary✌️
The pictures posted are from a secretly videotaped meeting with my care manager and his director at a non-profit agency in Westchester NY. For three months, I have been calling and trying to reach my care manager. I left message after message for weeks…
Decriminalizing Mental Illness👿
This article was originally published in NAMI’s the Advocate Spring 2019
The Revisionist: rise of the prosumer, axioms, and future directions in Mental Health Affairs
When I first began writing about mental health, and topics concerning my own experience with schizophrenia, I was a bit naive. I thought since I lived through “this”, meaning, the various incidents, challenges, and pitfalls of my disorder people who struggled with similar hazards…
