Two mental health advocates in Puerto Rico have founded Mad in Puerto Rico, a digital platform that challenges the island’s biomedical approach to psychiatry and explores critical psychology rooted in social determinants of health. Laura Lopez-Aybar and Jose Luiggi-Hernandez created the initiative after recognizing that psychiatry in Puerto Rico, as a former Spanish colony now under U.S. sovereignty, heavily emphasizes medication and medical diagnosis while sidelining alternative healing practices and systemic approaches to mental distress.
Background and Mission
Lopez-Aybar, who holds a PhD in clinical psychology, was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and borderline personality disorder at thirteen and spent her teenage years in psychiatric institutions and on medications that she says left her sedated and unable to function. Luiggi-Hernandez grew up in a religious household and later studied at the University of Puerto Rico, where readings by Freud and Marx introduced him to the idea that psychological distress stems from social and economic forces rather than individual brain dysfunction. The two founders, now a professor and clinician respectively, identified a gap in mental health discourse specific to Puerto Rico’s cultural and colonial context.
According to Lopez-Aybar, “It’s been pretty colonized into the minds of the people here that the only approach and the best approach is the biomedical approach.” She notes that Puerto Rican psychiatry “double down on oppression,” actively condemning non-Christian healing practices as satanic, despite their prevalence on the culturally diverse island. The site publishes interviews, testimonies from psychiatric survivors, research, editorial content, and resources on topics like withdrawal symptoms.
Reception and Challenges
The response to Mad in Puerto Rico has been mostly positive, with people reaching out for advice on finding trustworthy support services. Some psychologists have even incorporated the site’s content into their training activities. However, the team faces backlash for using “more radical terms” like “psychiatric survivor,” and some practitioners claim the site creates stigma or exaggerates abuses. Lopez-Aybar notes that engaging critics feels personal, given her own experiences with psychiatric violence.
The project operates as an unfunded passion initiative, with the team balancing it alongside full-time careers and covering costs from their own pockets. Funding is difficult to secure because, as Lopez-Aybar explains, “People here are fighting for their lives. Spending money is a commodity.” Despite constraints, the founders envision expanding the site with photo books of psychiatric survivors, resource directories, collaborations with other Mad in the World affiliates, poetry readings, and trainings on alternatives to the DSM.
This article is an AI-assisted summary. All facts and figures are drawn from the original report: https://www.madinamerica.com/2025/07/mad-in-puerto-rico/