Psychiatry has always had its share of critics, but in the past two decades these criticisms have increased in frequency and intensity. Psychiatry’s underlying concepts are being denounced as spurious to the point of inanity, and its practices are being accurately and forcefully exposed as destructive, disempowering, and stigmatizing. Psychiatry has no rational or logical… Continue Reading
The Concept of Mental Illness: Spurious or Valid?
On January 17, 2013, Peter Kinderman, PhD, Professor of Clinical Psychology at the University of Liverpool, wrote an article titled Grief and Anxiety are not mental illnesses. On February 4, 2013, Steven Novella, MD, wrote a critique of Dr. Kinderman’s article. On February 20, I wrote a critique of Dr. Novella’s article. And finally, on… Continue Reading
Postpartum Depression Not an Illness
BACKGROUND The primary purpose of the bio-psychiatric-pharma faction is to expand turf and sell more drugs. This is a multi-faceted endeavor, one component of which is disease mongering. This consists of using marketing techniques to persuade large numbers of people that they have an illness which needs to be treated with drugs. With regards to… Continue Reading
A Critical Look at Critical Psychiatry
Critical Psychiatry Network is a group of British psychiatrists who are developing and promoting concepts that question and criticize the assumptions that underlie present-day psychiatric practice, not only in Britain, but also in the US and other developed countries. Critical Psychiatry challenges the notion that the various DSM “diagnoses” are biologically-based illnesses, and adduces a… Continue Reading
Depression is Not a Brain Defect
I’ve come across an article by psychologist Bruce Levine, PhD, How the “Brain Defect” Theory of Depression Stigmatizes Depression Sufferers. Dr. Levine convincingly debunks the brain defect theory, and also the notion that the illness theory destigmatizes depression. Here are some quotes: “Americans have been increasingly socialized to be terrified of the overwhelming pain that… Continue Reading