Psychiatry’s Incurable Hubris

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/04/mind-fixers-anne-harrington/583228/

From ice baths to Prozac, each development Harrington describes was touted by its originators and adherents as the next great thing—and not without reason. Some people really did emerge from an insulin coma without their delusions; some people really are roused from profound and disabling depressions by a round of electroconvulsive therapy or by antidepressant drugs. But in every case, the treatment came first, often by accident, and the explanation never came at all. The pathological basis of almost all mental disorders remains as unknown today as it was in 1886—unsurprising, given that the brain turns out to be one of the most complex objects in the universe. Even as psychiatrists prescribe a widening variety of treatments, none of them can say exactly why any of these biological therapies work.

Another interesting article that was linked from the other one-

https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2013/05/the-real-problems-with-psychiatry/275371/

Then there is the idea that an entity as 'mental illness' exists. Hard to grasp. Like the flue ?

That some things are not mentally healthy is a different matter.

The pharmaceutical industry has been pumping money in the education of doctors and psychiatrists alike, and with success. My guess is that it will stop at some point. Who will pay for all of that ? The iatrogenic burden will simply become too great.

Then there is the idea that an entity as 'mental illness' exists. Hard to grasp. Like the flue ?

Mental variations exist. Mental illnesses? Maybe things like schizophrenia could be considered an "illness", but when the DSM starts categorizing normal masculinity and internet use as "mental illnesses" it's easy to see how slippery that slope is.

The more illnesses you invent the more office visits you can charge for and the more drugs you can sell. Create the demand by pathologizing normal human behavior. What a great business concept!

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/04/mind-fixers-anne-harrington/583228/

 

From ice baths to Prozac, each development Harrington describes was touted by its originators and adherents as the next great thing—and not without reason. Some people really did emerge from an insulin coma without their delusions; some people really are roused from profound and disabling depressions by a round of electroconvulsive therapy or by antidepressant drugs. But in every case, the treatment came first, often by accident, and the explanation never came at all. The pathological basis of almost all mental disorders remains as unknown today as it was in 1886—unsurprising, given that the brain turns out to be one of the most complex objects in the universe. Even as psychiatrists prescribe a widening variety of treatments, none of them can say exactly why any of these biological therapies work.

Good.  Thanks for posting.

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/04/mind-fixers-anne-harrington/583228/

 

From ice baths to Prozac, each development Harrington describes was touted by its originators and adherents as the next great thing—and not without reason. Some people really did emerge from an insulin coma without their delusions; some people really are roused from profound and disabling depressions by a round of electroconvulsive therapy or by antidepressant drugs. But in every case, the treatment came first, often by accident, and the explanation never came at all. The pathological basis of almost all mental disorders remains as unknown today as it was in 1886—unsurprising, given that the brain turns out to be one of the most complex objects in the universe. Even as psychiatrists prescribe a widening variety of treatments, none of them can say exactly why any of these biological therapies work.

Thanks for posting this.  Very interesting article.

“Psychiatry remains an empirical discipline, its practitioners as dependent on their (and their colleagues’) experience to figure out what will be effective as Pliny Earle and his colleagues were. Little wonder that the history of such a field—reliant on the authority of scientific medicine even in the absence of scientific findings—is a record not only of promise and setback, but of hubris.”

It's the universal paranoia of psychiatry that everybody who disagrees with them is pathological. You can't disagree with a psychiatrist without getting a diagnosis. I've been writing critically about psychiatry for ten years and I've always encountered that. Psychiatry is a defensive profession. They have a lot to protect and they know their weakness. To repel criticism in the strongest way possible, from their point of view, you diagnose the critic.

The more illnesses you invent the more office visits you can charge for and the more drugs you can sell. Create the demand by pathologizing normal human behavior. What a great business concept!

I absolutely agree with you, liberty!