WEBINAR (2/19/26): Empire of Madness: Reimagining Western Mental Health Care for Everyone
This event is sponsored by Arizona State University’s Future Security Initiative and New America.
WHEN: Thursday, Feb. 19, 2026 12:00 pm to 1:00 pm EST
WHERE: Online
In Empire of Madness: Reimagining Western Mental Health Care for Everyone, Dr. Khameer Kidia offers an urgent rethinking of the Western approach to mental health, which treats the symptoms rather than the exploitative systems causing our distress. A Rhodes Scholar and Harvard Medical School physician-anthropologist whose own family has experienced the psychological effects of colonialism, Kidia highlights the limitations of the Western mental health model by reporting from the front lines of mental health crises at home, in the clinic, and during a decade of fieldwork.
Clear-eyed and openhearted, Kidia asks the nuanced questions unaddressed by our current mental health model: How do history, culture, and politics shape mental distress? Are hoarding and burnout medical diagnoses or social problems? Why are schizophrenia outcomes sometimes better in poorer countries without antipsychotics? Can a traditional healer treat mental illness better than a Western-trained clinician? For those living in poverty, can cash replace pills?
With rigorous research, cutting analysis, and illuminating prose, Kidia invites us to reimagine mental health as a global idea where our wellbeing is mutual and everyone’s voice—patients, caregivers, and healthcare workers alike—matters.
Join the New America Fellows and Future Security Programs for a conversation with 2023 New America (ASU Future Security) Fellow Khameer Kidia and 2023 New America (Emerson Collective) Fellow Mona Chalabi about Empire of Madness.
Speakers:
Khameer Kidia
2023 New America (ASU Future Security) Fellow
Author, Empire of MadnessMona Chalabi
2023 New America (Emerson Collective) FellowCopies of Empire of Madness are available for purchase here through our bookselling partner Solid State Books.
About New America:
“We are dedicated to realizing the promise of America in an era of rapid technological and social change.
At New America, our research and policy recommendations focus on five key thematic areas: education and work; family economic security and wellbeing; global politics for people and planet; political reform and civic engagement; and technology and democracy.
In each area of our work, we put equity at the center; elevate stories of people closest to the public problems we seek to solve; invest in the next generation of leaders; and intentionally engage with local perspectives.
Taken together, these efforts advance toward our vision of a more equitable America that lives up to its values.”
