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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, I hear often suggestions that I get a pet or listen… Continue Reading

Posted by J. Peters on 11 Jul 2019
Locust lane Park🌳

At one point in the activation of my symptoms, particularly mania, I began driving endlessly and purposelessly, without general course or direction. Towards the more intense manic episodes, I would drive to self- soothe and unwind after spending 15 hour days on campus, in the library researching my paper contesting admission and overloaded with too… Continue Reading

Posted by on 9 Aug 2018
The Clinical Gaze

Walking into the therapists office, you sit down, look up at your therapist, and behold his or her eyes peering at you and assessing your mental status before you even speak. It is at that very moment that the floodgates of emotions, insecurities, vulnerabilities open up. You glance back at your therapist as he or… Continue Reading

Posted by on 13 May 2018

J. Peters

Max Guttman Max Guttman is the owner of Recovery Now, a private mental health practice in Ardsley, New York. Max’s battle with schizophrenia began at Binghamton University in his last semester of college. Max was discharged from Greater Binghamton State Hospital Center in July of 2008, after spending six months there. His recovery was swift, but not painless, and certainly difficult. Max refers to his stance on recovery in his journal articles as “Too big to fail.” No obstacle too big, no feat out of reach, Max let nothing stop him in his path to recovery and healing. While Max’s symptoms began during his last semester, he successfully graduated from college, and his diploma was waiting for him at home after his discharge from the hospital. On one of the newest intramuscular injections (IM) available, and after learning the true meaning of adherence, Max later went on to publish articles about the use of injectable medications to overcome his own symptoms. Through paranoia, hallucinations, and other symptoms of schizophrenia, Max didn’t let anything stop him from his return to academia, and writing. In his childhood, Max was a lover of language. When schizophrenia tried to rob him of his academic ability, Max fought back. With the use of medications and therapy, he finally regained his ability to communicate and to pursue his passions and dreams for higher education. Through his work as a social worker, therapist, and disability rights advocate, Max fights for those without a voice in the system. He seeks to help those who are struggling with schizophrenia and other mental illnesses not just achieve stabilization but thrive. Max is relentless in his passion for helping people who find themselves vulnerable, and those without the ability to care for themselves. Today, Max teaches social work students at Fordham University to be leaders in their practice. Max is the author of University on Watch: Crisis in the Academy, which he published under the pen name J. Peters in 2019. Max writes on his lived experience, and also brings his story into his work. Max blogs daily on his site mentalhealthaffairs.blog and for other sites around the United States and Europe, bringing his passion for mental health to consumers everywhere.

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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 for this person. It’s the same old story in mental health… Continue Reading
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 in their life could relate to my writing. I wrote, and… Continue Reading
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 the same book. Interviewer: Can you say more about that? J.… Continue Reading
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 Caribbean cruise on a premier passenger line. After my break in… Continue Reading
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 is so different about your books/memoirs than any other person with… Continue Reading
University on Watch: Crisis in the Academy 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 book was erected as soon as the story was clear enough… Continue Reading
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 difficult to do when my resources ran dry. For a while,… Continu […]
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 not only to reject my application to the graduate school but… Continue Reading
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 began reading Technologies of the Self, by Michel Foucault. From this… Continue Reading