Maria Ingström in Conversation with Auður Axels | Open Dialogue Meeting 2026

In this conversation, Swedish physician and author Maria Ingström sits down with Auður Axelsdóttir, co-founder of Hugarafl, to talk about Maria’s extraordinary journey from medical student, to psychiatric patient, and eventually back to practising medicine. At the age of 25, during her final year of medical school, Maria experienced an altered state of consciousness that was diagnosed as psychosis. She was subjected to involuntary psychiatric treatment, including prolonged restraint, heavy medication and ECT. Looking back, Maria describes not only the experience of psychosis, but the profound impact of the way she was treated within the psychiatric system. Maria and Auður discuss coercion and human rights in psychiatry, the importance of listening to a person’s life story, the role of family and relationships in recovery, psychiatric medication and tapering, and what can happen when treatment focuses on diagnosis rather than the person and their context. Maria also reflects on what helped her find her way back: her family, relationships, being seen as the person she was beyond her diagnosis, and having a meaningful life and identity to return to. Today Maria is a specialist in family medicine and the author of the award-winning memoir Restrained: A Doctor’s Journey Through Psychosis, Recovery, and the Search for Compassionate Care. Her experience on both sides of the psychiatric system has led her to advocate for more humane, relationship-based approaches to mental health care. The conversation was recorded in Iceland during the 2026 International Meeting on Psychosis and Open Dialogue. Maria Ingström website: https://www.mariaingstrom.com/ Buy Maria's book Restrained: https://l1nq.com/ggoqo2m