You wouldn’t think that an antidepressant, a medication which is supposed to alleviate depression, would cause someone to want to end their life. However, since antidepressants have been on the market, we have seen a marked increase in self-harm, suicidal thoughts, suicide attempts and completed suicides associated with their use. This mostly applies to SSRIs…
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We can’t undermine or ignore the fact that sexism against women pervades all aspects of society: it still exists in education, employment, the workplace, politics, domestic life and in everyday social situations. It is worth stressing that the gender pay gap, the idea that men earn more than women for the same work, is largely…
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Thomas Szasz was an American psychiatrist who became a controversial academic figure for his criticism of the foundations of psychiatry. He has been associated with the anti-psychiatry movement (although Szasz himself insisted he was not anti-psychiatry but anti-coercive psychiatry). In books such as The Myth of Mental Illness (1960), as the title suggests, Szasz argues that…
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Sweatshops entail long hours with no breaks, terrible working conditions, a disgracefully low pay, abuse from employers and sometimes, worst of all, an abuse of child labour laws. Sweatshops are responsible for violating these workers’ human rights and for breaching laws relating to overtime and minimum wage. Some of the human rights that sweatshops breach,…
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There have been many cults – the most infamous found in America – which have made headline news for their violent, abusive, reclusive and suicidal tendencies. Some infamous American cults include the Branch Davidians, the Peoples Temple, Heaven’s Gate and Children of God. News reports describe these cults as being extreme and dangerous, but what exactly…
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