MOVIE

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Crazywise

2016

What can we learn from those who have turned their psychological crisis into a positive transformative experience? During a quarter-century documenting indigenous cultures, human-rights photographer and filmmaker Phil Borges often saw these cultures identify "psychotic" symptoms as an indicator of shamanic potential. He was intrigued by how differently psychosis is defined and treated in the West. Through interviews with renowned mental health professionals including Gabor Mate, MD, Robert Whitaker, and Roshi Joan Halifax, PhD, Phil explores the growing severity of the mental health crisis in America dominated by biomedical psychiatry. He discovers a growing movement of professionals and psychiatric survivors who demand alternative treatments that focus on recovery, nurturing social connections, and finding meaning. CRAZYWISE follows two young Americans diagnosed with "mental illness." Adam, 27, suffers devastating side effects from medications before embracing meditation in hopes of recovery. Ekhaya, 32, survives childhood molestation and several suicide attempts before spiritual training to become a traditional South African healer gives her suffering meaning and brings a deeper purpose to her life. CRAZYWISE doesn't aim to over-romanticize indigenous wisdom, or completely condemn Western treatment. Not every indigenous person who has a crisis becomes a shaman. And many individuals benefit from Western medications. However, indigenous peoples' acceptance of non-ordinary states of consciousness, along with rituals and metaphors that form deep connections to nature, to each other, and to ancestors, is something we can learn from. CRAZYWISE adds a voice to the growing conversation that believes a psychological crisis can be an opportunity for growth and potentially transformational, not a disease without a cure.

82 min

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04:06

Dr Gabor Maté: What the Real Cause of Your Anxiety Is

Dr Gabor Maté explains how he believes that most mental health disorders—including Anxiety and Panic Attacks—originate in childhood experience as coping mechanisms. He also explains how revisiting the real cause of the problem can help you overcome it.

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03:48

Gabor Maté - The Psychology of Spiritual Seeking

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01:03:07

Dr. Gabor Mate in the Realm of Hungry Ghosts | Addiction Interview | Joe Polish

Dr.

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04:09

Gabor Mate – Crazywise Expert Interview

Physician Dr. Gabor Mate began his interview by addressing the 'myth of normal' that divides us into the normal and the abnormal with pathological traits. Dr. Mate mentions that he doesn't see a division, but a continuum where mental distress, of some degree, is present in all of us.

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The Fellowship of the River: A Medical Doctor’s Exploration into Traditional Amazonian Plant Medicine

Western medicine has not been particularly successful at getting people relief from conditions like depression, chronic pain, migraine headaches, addiction, and PTSD. Dr. Tafur helps us to understand why. Too often, the Western medical approach fails to address the emotional dimension of illness.

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When the Body Says No: Understanding the Stress-Disease Connection

Can a person literally die of loneliness? Is there a connection between inhibited emotion and Alzheimer's disease? Is there a “cancer personality”? Questions such as these are emerging as scientific findings throw new light on the controversy that surrounds the mind-body connection in illness...

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EXPLORE TOPIC

Depression