Leading Psychiatrist Dr. Jeffrey Lieberman Warns America Is Missing the Warning Signs of Mass Violence
During Mental Health Awareness Month, ARETÉ Science and Dr. Jeffrey Lieberman call for science-grounded mental health reform through Shrink Speak, Dr. Lieberman's Substack platform for psychiatry and mental health
NEW YORK, May 8, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- May is Mental Health Awareness Month — and while much of the national conversation focuses on awareness, sympathy, and stigma reduction, Dr. Jeffrey Lieberman argues that without scientific understanding, effective treatment, and systemic reform, families, schools, and communities will keep reacting after warning signs have already been missed.
ARETÉ Science is a nonprofit initiative advancing science-based mental health reform and is using Mental Health Awareness Month to encourage a broader national conversation about America's mental health crisis — one that moves toward scientific understanding, effective treatment, prevention, and mental health system reform.
Dr. Lieberman, one of America's leading psychiatrists and a former President of the American Psychiatric Association, publishes Shrink Speak (https://shrinkspeak.substack.com/), his Substack platform for articles and videos focused on psychiatry, neuroscience, serious mental illness, public policy, and the failures of America's mental health care system.
As part of this Mental Health Awareness Month effort, Dr. Lieberman, Professor of Psychiatry at Columbia University, has published the article "America Burning: Curing Our National Epidemic of Personal Deviant Violence" (https://shrinkspeak.substack.com/p/america-burning) and a related video (https://shrinkspeak.substack.com/p/shrink-speak-shorts-america-burning). In the article and video, he argues that America has avoided a deeper question: why certain vulnerable individuals cross the line from alienation to annihilation — and what it will take to recognize and respond to those warning signs before devastation occurs.
"For sixty years, we have debated guns, media, ideology, and policing. Those debates matter. But they orbit a deeper question we have avoided: why do certain vulnerable individuals in modern America cross the line from alienation to annihilation? Until we confront that question directly—socially, culturally, clinically, and systemically—the cycle will continue," writes Dr. Lieberman.
The article and video explore what Lieberman describes as Personal Deviant Violence — a broader epidemic that includes mass violence, violent stalking, serial murder, and familicide — and examine why troubled individuals spiral toward devastation while families, institutions, and communities fail to see it coming.
This is not an argument that mental illness explains all violence, or that people with mental illness are inherently violent — the vast majority are not. It is a question of whether America's failure to recognize and respond to serious psychiatric deterioration is leaving communities perpetually caught off guard.
Through Shrink Speak, Dr. Lieberman also addresses schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, youth mental health, substance use, and emerging treatments. Recent coverage has examined the growing pressure to fast-track psychedelics and other psychiatric treatments — including the public and political debate sparked by Joe Rogan and others. See: Bravo, Joe Rogan – But His Opinion Shouldn't Determine America's Drug Policy (https://shrinkspeak.substack.com/p/shrink-speak-shorts-bravo-joe-rogan).
About ARETÉ Science
ARETÉ Science (https://aretescience.org) is dedicated to advancing science-based mental health reform, public education, and practical solutions to improve psychiatric care and mental health outcomes. ARETÉ Science seeks to move the national conversation from awareness to understanding — and from understanding to action.
About Jeffrey A. Lieberman, M.D.
Jeffrey A. Lieberman, M.D., is one of America's leading psychiatrists, a former President of the American Psychiatric Association, and the bestselling author of Malady of the Mind: Schizophrenia and the Path to Prevention and Shrinks: The Untold Story of Psychiatry. A Professor of Psychiatry at Columbia University, his work focuses on psychiatry, neuroscience, serious mental illness, schizophrenia, and public policy.
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