Philosophers Challenge Psychiatry and its Search for Mechanisms of Disorder

Attempting to locate the mechanisms of psychiatric disorder is a step in the wrong direction and fails to challenge potentially unjust social practices.

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Dr. Hartner and Dr. Theurer, researchers in philosophy and the social sciences, published a new paper that conscientiously articulates the philosophical problems and taken-for-granted assumptions in psychiatry. They call into question psychiatry’s ongoing attempt to identify the mechanisms that underlie psychiatric “disorders,” for example, by searching for biomarkers of “depression.”

Central to their analysis, Hartner and Theurer examine the question that has surfaced time and time again in the field: “What kind of thing is a psychiatric disorder?” They review the meaning behind the question itself and the different positions taken in response. Ultimately, their philosophical assessment leads them to conclude that psychiatry should not continue to seek biomarkers or other mechanisms believed to be the origin of “disorders.”

“Psychiatry should not attempt to map its categories to underlying multilevel mechanisms, no matter how complicated, because psychiatry is uniquely and precariously situated at the border of empirical facts and social values, and no mechanism can coherently purport to account for both,” they write.

In addition to the fallacies that they argue are embedded in the notion that mechanisms of disorders can be identified, Hartner and Theurer express concerns that uncritically promoting this endeavor is misleading and provides circular support for a flawed diagnostic system. They write:

“Moreover, the instability of our existing psychiatric taxonomy gives us reason to worry that a search for mechanisms of disorder, which presumably always has to work backward from diagnostic and classificatory procedures to the biological considerations that justify them, will lend the appearance of scientific validity and empirical respectability to a procedure that is bound to be rife with nonempirical social and value judgments.”

Photo Credit: Pixabay

To demonstrate their argument, the authors begin by addressing the central question of “what kind of a thing is a psychiatric disorder?” People within and outside of the psy-disciplines have taken different positions to understand the nature of psychiatric disorders. For example, for some, psychiatric disorders represent what would be referred to as “natural kinds.” Those who align with this belief are considered to be “realists,” and they understand psychiatric disorders to be natural and biological, existing “independent of human interests.”

The other side of the debate features the belief that psychiatric disorders are concepts constructed in a way that is dependent on human interests. This argument, referred to as the “constructivist” argument, asserts that mental disorders do not represent naturally existing entities with real boundaries because it is humans who have classified them. Therefore, psychiatric research cannot aim to discover the mechanisms of disorder or the boundaries that exist between different disorders. The authors further explain the constructivist position on the nature of psychiatric disorders. They write:

“At the other end of the spectrum, the constructivist answers these questions by pointing out that psychiatric kinds are just labels designating clusters of behaviors that society would prefer to reform, treat, or isolate.”

The field has consistently come up short in locating biomarkers for disorders. Yet, the constructivist argument risks minimizing experiences of distress that are felt to be very real and salient to those who suffer and to those who are hoping to provide care and treatment for suffering. The authors point out that psychiatric symptoms for disorders do seem to cluster together and evidence exists that specific traits may be heritable.

Based on these arguments, Hartner and Theurer engage additional questions that suggest the realist vs. constructivist debate does not adequately capture the truth within the experience of psychiatric disorders. They ask, “How are these things possible if disorders are mere reflections of social values? It is tempting to think, then, that the right answer lies somewhere in between.”

Indeed, some have theorized that psychiatric disorders are “neither natural, biological kinds nor arbitrary socially constructed kinds that are unaffected by empirical facts in the real world.” Rather, they can be seen as having practical utility in the real world. Through this lens, psychiatric disorders can have practical value. Zachar (2000), the pioneer of this approach, argues that psychiatric disorders are “more than names but less than inherent essences.” The authors explain:

“On this view, both the realist and the constructivist are asking the wrong question: The practical kinds account holds that psychiatric kinds should be judged in terms of their usefulness, not in terms of whether they ‘really exist.’ The goal of constructing a psychiatric taxonomy should be to diagnose and treat patients, not to determine whether psychiatric disorders like autism are real.”

However, those who adopt this argument are faced with the daunting task of explaining what makes practical “kinds” practical? In other words, what distinguishes and defines things that are practical from things that are impractical?

Hartner and Theurer continue to engage this debate, pointing out the limitations of different positions as well as the responses taken to address these limitations that grow increasingly more complex. For example, they explain that two separate arguments tend to be conflated in these discussions. The question of whether psychiatric disorders are real or constructed ought to remain distinct from whether certain properties or essences account for the coherence of a construct, as the latter cannot necessarily be used to support the former.

In addition to disentangling the nuances inherent in these positions, Hartner and Theurer attempt to incorporate philosophy into questioning the nature of psychiatry and psychiatric methods. They write:

“We argue that, despite their appeal, these views ultimately stumble on confusion about the nature of psychiatric science, the aims and limitations of scientific inquiry and mechanistic explanations, and the role of values in psychiatry. Exposing these difficulties is a helpful step toward showing why understanding the nature of psychiatric disorder requires first clarifying the nature of psychiatry itself, its status as a science-based form of medicine, and the limitations on what its methods can teach us about the nature of psychiatric disorder.”

One primary consideration that surfaces is whether or not the question central to the debate about mental disorders or “kinds” ought to be the primary focus. To ask, “what kind of thing is a psychiatric disorder?” recasts focus from the legitimacy of psychiatric practice, methods, and approaches, toward a focus on the nature of disorders instead. Hartner and Theurer explain:

“But there is something disconcerting about this as the central question in the philosophy of psychiatry, for it encourages us to characterize psychiatry by focusing not on psychiatric practice itself—the methodology, techniques, and philosophical commitments of its practitioners, and the taxonomy of disorders that results— but rather on the status of the disorders it countenances.”

They continue:

“Perhaps it is time to reverse that. As currently posed, the central question seems to lead us back to the same stagnant well of choices: Psychiatric disorders are either real parts of the natural world or they are mere products of human classificatory conventions.”

To their first point, the authors deliver a philosophical questioning of psychiatric practice. They point out that psychiatry operates from the vantage point that a mental disorder is a legitimate kind of thing, with a set of features that make up its classification, and an issue that falls within the purview of psychiatric expertise. All of these assumptions tend to go unquestioned and, for the most part, evade any major critical reconsideration.

“Meanwhile, the psychiatric community seems to have relatively little interest in these philosophical matters. It seems now to be much more concerned with putatively practical disputes, such as which big book of mental disorders to adopt, which branch of science will ultimately furnish the mechanisms of psychiatric disorders, and which professional degrees qualify one to treat psychiatric disorders with prescription drugs.”

Moreover, providers appear to be comfortable staying within the confines of this myopic approach, the authors contend.

“Clinicians and researchers in psychiatry appear increasingly comfortable with or indifferent to unresolved philosophical questions about the nature of psychiatry’s subject matter.”

These observations drive the authors to contribute their philosophical lens to this debate. They articulate their primary purpose:

“Our goal in this article is to refocus the primary target of philosophical attention—for philosophers and psychiatrists alike—on the nature and subject matter of psychiatry and the scope and limits of psychiatric expertise. We propose to do this by challenging the central question in the philosophy of psychiatry with its focus on the nature of psychiatric disorders.”

Hartner and Theurer immerse themselves into the different positions that comprise the discussion, outlining how this central question has evolved into psychiatry’s search for mechanisms of psychiatric disorder.  Responses have developed that attempt to explain the mechanisms of disorder in a way that captures the idea that mental disorders may not be real or constructed, but rather, are practical.

In an effort to explain “practical,” the researchers attempt to identify complex interactions between behavior, environment, and physiology as they manifest through development, evolution, and interaction with the environment. However, even if these mechanisms are identified, the authors explain, “it is not obvious how the existence of any such mechanism is possible or what such a mechanism would be a mechanism of.”

To clarify this point, the authors distinguish between what it means to ask “how?” versus “why?” To question the mechanism of a “disorder,” such as a state of hyper-alertness, is to arrive at an explanation of “how hyper-alertness comes to be vs. why hyper-alertness is problematic.” Therefore, to frame a person’s distress as problematic can only come about if one is discussing the person in relation to their environment.

They apply this dilemma in another example, using anxiety as the psychiatric disorder in question:

“Understanding the neurological mechanisms of the symptoms of anxiety, for example, is surely a crucial task for a psychiatrist hoping to intervene on that mechanism. But the question of whether such intervention is the appropriate course of treatment in the first place, or whether it is the symptoms rather than the organism’s circumstances that really need treatment, cannot be settled by neurological mechanisms.”

Ultimately, Hartner and Theurer argue that the quest for mechanisms cannot result in the information needed to inform understanding of distress or approaches to ameliorate it sufficiently.

“The focus on mechanisms,” the authors write, “risks conveying the simplistic and misleading impression that psychiatric disorders are simply discovered by exploring the empirical world, that such discoveries can and should shed light on what is wrong with the patients who present with symptoms, and that such discoveries can and should yield medical interventions that should be used to alleviate symptoms.”

This search is likely to result in approaches that have the potential to be dangerous, they assert. Hartner and Theurer illustrate this by reasoning that “intervening directly into, say, neurotransmitter systems may be a rather dangerous and unjustifiably sledgehammer-like intervention for undoing the effects of bullying or loneliness, for increasing one’s satisfaction with a genuinely unfulfilling and pointless job, or for helping children focus at hours of the day that their circadian rhythms dictate they ought to be sleeping.”

The authors reiterate their argument that psychiatry should not seek mechanisms of disorder numerous times throughout the paper. They are adamant in their position that to understand clusters of symptoms that are perceived to be “disorder,” the person must be understood within their environment.

Examining the person and their biology, or empirical facts believed to explain their symptoms, even if the methods used are complex, will not provide an answer as to why these symptoms of distress are occurring. Therefore, they cannot sufficiently inform an appropriate response. Instead, considerations that attend to societal structures, collective values within cultures and subcultures of humanity, and expectations of what it means to be problematic or live well are essential components.

Although Hartner and Theurer meticulously trace through complex philosophical positions regarding these debates, they do so in a way that is applicable, citing real-world examples throughout their paper and articulating radical stances on psychiatry and its approaches.

For example, they specifically discuss the recent NIMH initiative, the Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) approach. They explicit write that this initiative represents “a step in the wrong direction.” It endeavors to reconfigure a new diagnostic taxonomy from the ground up by understanding psychiatric disorders as brain disorders.

RDoC is positioned as an alternative to the DSM which was designed by defining clusters of symptoms first and then working backward to identify diagnoses. Contrary to this, the RDoC initiative is set to begin by identifying the mechanisms of disorders, operationalized as evidence of brain dysfunction, to then explain clusters of symptoms. The authors describe how the RDoC approach is fundamentally flawed.

“This is because, again, it is symptoms rather than disorders that we may explain by elucidating underlying biological mechanisms. The disorder labels and the decisions about which symptoms belong underneath them are always determined in part by social and evaluative considerations. Perhaps for this very reason, no commitment to disorders as natural kinds is implicit in the DSM itself. It is, however, implicit in research projects that attempt to ground those kinds in underlying mechanisms. And this, we argue, is the fundamental mistake and the one that the RDoC initiative threatens to entrench even further.”

Hartner and Theurer recommend that the field of psychiatry recognize the lack of solid ground that underlies any attempt to provide care for persons in distress. Incorporating philosophy can facilitate a more ethical and humane approach. However, they make it clear that distress can be real and burdensome and that it is possible for individual “symptoms” and accompanying mechanisms be fully explained. They write:

“We do not deny that individual symptoms can be fully explained mechanistically. Nor do we deny that the very real—and sometimes very burdensome— experience of depression can and does manifest itself in many different ways for different people. That is a good reason for exploring the mechanisms that generate depressive symptoms. What we deny is that the mechanisms that generate psychiatric symptoms can thereby tell you that the patient is disordered. That is because, unlike identifying the mechanisms that generate symptoms (e.g., feeling anxious or depressed), the decision to group symptoms together as a disorder depends on social considerations and evaluative judgments. Mechanistic explanations cannot, in principle, explain why symptoms and behaviors are dysfunctional or harmful.”

In their conclusion, Hartner and Theurer explain that initiatives to identify mechanisms of a disorder are concerning because numerous, unjustified assumptions support the search. In turn, the results of such endeavors appear to lend “scientific validity to a classification scheme that has too little empirical evidence to support it.” Moreover, the surrounding environment and the potentially unjust social order that contributes to one’s distress go unexamined and unchallenged. These concerns are powerfully illustrated in the following example:

“If a patient is depressed because she spends 40 or more hours a week engaged in alienating labor for exploitative pay, the decision to help her dampen those feelings with drugs seems to assume that it is her response rather than her culture that is dysfunctional. But psychiatrists have no special expertise on these matters.”

They continue:

“We sympathize with the rebuttal that in such cases psychiatry involves helping patients cope with circumstances they cannot change. Nevertheless, such practices are potentially dangerous, to both patients and society, because they involve manipulating complex chemical systems that we do not fully understand and also because they contribute to the normalization of social practices that need to be justified by rational argumentation.”

Building on this example, the authors attend to the question of what it means to behave in problematic or abnormal ways by deliberating the nexus of a person’s behavior and their surrounding social values.

“Whether depression or cheerful acceptance is the more ‘dysfunctional’ or ‘abnormal’ response to exploitative labor needs to be settled by arguments about our social values, not by appeal to empirical evidence about whether feelings of depression and despair are a product of neurotransmitter systems.”

Finally, the stance the authors take is made clear as they delineate the dangers associated with the search for mechanisms of disorders. Hartner and Theurer conclude with the following two remarks.

First, “…it is important to emphasize that among the ethical obligations of professionals is the obligation to recognize the limits of one’s own expertise.”

“Second, and finally, we must always bear in mind that psychiatry has a rather checkered history of overstepping its expertise and dictating poorly justified values disguised as scientific facts to the public and the patients it treats.

 

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Hartner, D. F., & Theurer, K. L. (2018). Psychiatry should not seek mechanisms of disorder. Journal of Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/teo0000095 (Link)

43 COMMENTS

  1. Hear, hear!!

    The very idea that the underlying assumptions built into psychiatric practice might be faulty (and why), and that the evidence used to justify those practices are not medically sound, are rarely argued so directly and with such clarity.

    The philosophers are still willing to ask hard questions and buck the trends. I’d love to see more like this.

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  2. I would hope that we are searching
    for the causes of human suffering
    and what we can do about it…..
    how about do no harm…
    and not for profit…too much $$$$
    being made and we still don’t know
    why so much suicide and drug addiction..
    bio/psy/soc—we need to look everywhere…
    even under the kitchen sink

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        • I would not argue that all of the above are involved. But the arguments made by the psychiatric mainstream, while claiming to be “bio-psych-social,” in actuality deny the validity of the psycho-social-economic-political aspects of suffering and spend all their energy on “bio.” I think that’s that this article is really about.

          Thanks for your kind words!

          — Steve

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      • Even in all of nature we see a construct. We see control with a group of wolves, for the benefit of survival. Are all the wolves happy and thriving?

        We are supposed to be MUCH more than a pack of wolves. They tell us what differentiates us is the ability to reason, to think. Yet every action made by man takes us further from functioning. Shackling people in slavery, demeaning, incarcerations for being different, lobotomies….THESE are the processes of thought, not reasoning in a rational manner. If anything, these point to “mental illness” residing within the powers. Those powers are destructive, not for the good of the pack. Mankind should ‘rethink’ his imagined ‘thinking’ abilities.

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  3. My view of the matter could still be described as social constructivist. “Mechanism of disorder”? What is that? Some kind of “chaos” button? “Disorder” here is another way of trying to say “disease” or “sickness” without using the word “disease” or “sickness”. You are saying some people’s neurobiology is out of whack. I have serious doubts about that conclusion. Anxiety, for one thing, is neither symptom nor disease. Anxiety is an evolutionary and natural survival mechanism, a human trait. The way to overcome excessive anxiety is through mastery and facility of any particular ability or talent. The only “disorder” that anxiety is a “symptom” of is the “disorder” that accompanies inexperience. My point? Use any language you want to to frame the matter the problem is still the same. Medical doctors who treat diseases that don’t exist are quacks. Perhaps it is time to come up with a more valid explanation for what people are doing when they use “medicine” as an excuse to meddle in social relations on a wide scale basis.

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    • Reread the article. You did not parse apparently that the very legitimacy of “disorders” was at question.

      Additionally, there are actually well understood medical causes of “psychiatric” symptoms, but psychiatrists don’t generally look for them. So dismissing medical causes out of hand is not helpful.

      Thirdly, there is also well documented, though not yet well understood, evidence of systemic inflammation negatively effecting the health of individuals exposed to chronic or multiple traumas (regardless of their exposure to psychiatry, so can’t be blamed on drug effects). Understanding how to mitigate this inflammation so it does less damage long term would be helpful to those of us experiencing it.

      The most disturbing thought arising from psychiatry looking for genetic markers for mental disorders is that it seems what they’re really looking for is to be able to create a human that is emotionally impervious to mistreatment, in the same way that a animal breeder might try to breed a certain kind of temperament into a bloodline – the implications of this are staggering if you stop to think about their logical conclusion.

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      • I agree – the implication is that the only acceptable response to stress ranges from mild annoyance to mild amusement. Any strong reaction, even enthusiasm, is “diagnosable” as “abnormal behavior!” Apparently, “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” or “The Stepford Wives” is the ideal human society.

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      • I only know that there is a lot of physical damage associated with “treatment”. Physical damage that is a direct result of attributing so-called “mental ill health” to biology. Where do we draw the line? Ending “treatment”, in these instances, can be a way of reducing or, at least, containing iatrogenic damage. Given excessive treatment, such as people receive today, disability is often a certainty. I find it not at all surprising that some people would want cover up this damage, or plead blissfully ignorant of it, by attributing it to faulty biology.

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        • One of the main reasons for going after “biological markers” for so-called “mental illnesses” is to be better able to sell drugs to people, people that consume drugs as treatments for fictitious illnesses. I don’t think it any wonder that, for instance, a direct to consumer DNA testing company like 23 and Me would make a deal with a pharmaceutical company like Glaxo, Smith, and Kline. Which treatment drug is the least debilitating for you, in other words. Well, no drug, but don’t listen to me, and seek “biological markers” for a so called “mental illness”. and, of course, we can find a drug for you that isn’t as debilitating as whatever drug it would be that you might end up taking. A “designer drug” let us say. It’s just that none of these drugs are likely to be as non-debilitating (i.e. non-damaging) as no drug whatsoever.

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    • “Perhaps it is time to come up with a more valid explanation for what people are doing when they use ‘medicine’ as an excuse to meddle in social relations on a wide scale basis.” I do agree with this, Frank. And I like C.S. Lewis’ terminology. He discusses the societal problem with “omni-potent moral busy bodies,” which is what I believe describes the “mental health professionals” role in our society. C.S. Lewis’ quote:

      “Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.”

      Today’s “mental health professionals” are the globalist “robber barons'” “omnipotent moral busy bodies.” As mentioned would be their role, even according to those globalist bankers’ historic writings.

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  4. Thank you Zenobia Morrill for this great article.

    This is a very important and powerful indictment of the flawed scientific, philosophical, and political underpinnings of psychiatry and the entire Medical Model. The work of these researches (and this blog) should be spread far and wide as an important weapon against all forms of psychiatric oppression.

    As a secondary point, what CONCERNS ME about this article is that despite all this very deep and powerful exposure of psychiatry, there is not a single reference made to ABOLISHING this very harmful institution. Without this type of discussion, we end up “minimizing” the overall harm done by psychiatric oppression in all its forms.

    On what basis does it EVER make sense to make “recommendations” to the institution of psychiatry? Why even give them the credibility that somehow (as an institution, not as individual people) they deserve to exist in a humane world?

    If one takes the work of these researches work to ALL its ultimate conclusion (looking at the social and political role of psychiatry in today’s world), there is NO OTHER justice worthy conclusion than to *abolish* psychiatry.

    Richard

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    • “If one takes the work of these researches work to ALL its ultimate conclusion (looking at the social and political role of psychiatry in today’s world), there is NO OTHER justice worthy conclusion than to *abolish* psychiatry.”

      Richard, this makes perfect sense if the researchers were not hedging their bets with their terminology and thus implying that there is still some kind of medical “disorder” being addressed consistent with KindredSpriit’s larger comment above.

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      • The problem at its base is that psychiatry addresses the symptoms of social problems as being in the medical domain and reactions to social problems as existing solely within the individual. But also actual medical issues are being treated and pathologized by psychiatry when they would be appropriately addressed by a physician.

        I fall into both groups now (it’s a new place I’m still figuring out my feelings about) yet I feel pretty confident saying psychiatry has not served my medical needs with an infectious disease nor has it served me as a survivor of severe trauma by labeling and shaming my struggles as bipolar (genetically inferior, brain diseased) or borderline (drama queen, trouble maker, bad patient, bad victim), or otherwise placing the responsibility and locus of control on me, the injured party.

        And so regardless of whether someone is experiencing emotional distress (or distressing others) due to an actual medical issues, reacting to an oppressive culture, or has a history of trauma, psychiatry is BAD at treating all etiologies of mental distress.

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    • Abolishing psychiatry? It will likely go the way pellagrology did when Vitamin B3 cured most cases of pellagra. It’s still around in places like India, where inadequate diets are common, but not in the western world, where even white flour is fortified with niacinamide (although some of the “schizophrenias” may be forms of vitamin resistant pellagra).
      The difficulty with acquiring psychiatric knowledge is that “psychiatric diseases” don’t exist in a pure form, being descriptions (and not good ones at that) of collections of symptoms compressed into relatively simple categories and groups that are actually heterogeneous in nature. Attempting studies without teasing out all the subgroups in the study population invites certain failure.

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      • The problem with all medical studies is the underlying assumption that the diagnosis is valid. Psychiatry is not alone in collecting bogus data.

        My mother participated in a study at the NIH in the late 1990s, was diagnosed by NIH doctors as having Sjogren’s Syndrome, her data is now part of that study set. My mother does not have Sjogren’s Syndrome. Her symptoms turned out to be a combination of Lyme Disease and seasonal allergies. Anyone studying anything can be fooled into seeing what they’re looking for. It is always appropriate to question the validity of the data gathered and not just the conclusions drawn from that data.

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        • @kindredspirit: According to the “Sjogren’s Syndrome Foundation” website, “as many as 4 million Americans may have Sjogren’s”…. But it looks to me that it’s a made-up, invented “diagnosis”. It’s another business, another way to make money. And there’s “no cure”. I find it funny, that this is the FIRST I’ve heard of “Sjogren’s”…. I also notice that there’s no REAL mention of what CAUSES “Sjogren’s”. To simply call it an “autoimmune disorder” doesn’t really answer the question.

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    • “If one takes the work of these researches work to ALL its ultimate conclusion (looking at the social and political role of psychiatry in today’s world), there is NO OTHER justice worthy conclusion than to *abolish* psychiatry.” I agree, Richard.

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  5. Thank you Zenobia for this compelling report, MIA is off to a great start in 2019 with this information!

    Psychiatry has certainly been exposed as a crude and simplistic way of making moral/social judgments and labelling people – with no regard given to environment, trauma or even physical/medical conditions. Psychiatry is using their damaging labels as ‘weapons of mass destruction’ against people who are already suffering or in distress.

    I agree with Richard D. Lewis that “The work of these researchers (and this blog) should be spread far and wide as an important weapon against all forms of psychiatric oppression”. MIA, their associated professionals and researchers, and those with lived experience are crucial weapons in the fight against the injustices and absurdity of psychiatric labels and harmful treatments.

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  6. Given that the primary actual function of both the psychological and psychiatric wings of our “mental health professions,” historically and today, is paternalistically discrediting and turning child abuse and rape victims into the “seriously mentally ill” with the psychiatric drugs.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Freudian_Coverup
    https://www.madinamerica.com/2016/04/heal-for-life/
    https://www.alternet.org/2010/04/are_prozac_and_other_psychiatric_drugs_causing_the_astonishing_rise_of_mental_illness_in_america/
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuroleptic-induced_deficit_syndrome
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toxidrome

    I agree with others here, that ending the psychiatric fraud and iatrogenesis, of today’s scientifically “invalid,” DSM deluded, “mental health professionals” needs to end.

    https://www.nimh.nih.gov/about/directors/thomas-insel/blog/2013/transforming-diagnosis.shtml

    I appreciate, and hope, the decent educated people of our society will some day start pointing out the problem of our society having a multibillion dollar, primarily child abuse covering up, group of “mental health industries.” Which can’t EVER help ANY child abuse survivor EVER, without first misdiagnosing ALL child abuse survivors with the “invalid” DSM disorders, because child abuse is NOT an insurance billable DSM disorder.

    https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/your-child-does-not-have-bipolar-disorder/201402/dsm-5-and-child-neglect-and-abuse-1

    I do hope the philosophers will garner insight into this societal problem with our “mental health” industries, and realize it is NOT in the best interest of ANY society to have a primarily child abuse covering up group of “mental health” industries. Since a society that has a primarily child abuse defaming, iatrogenic illness creating, and covering up group of industries, which is what America’s “mental health industries” are today, by DSM design, will destroy our society in the long run.

    A little insight into this societal destruction, by our child abuse covering up, “mental health” industries, that is already being pointed out by world leaders.

    https://duckduckgo.com/?q=western+civilization+is+controlled+by+satanic+pedophiles&t=osx&ia=web
    https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/11/us/backpage-sex-trafficking.html

    So, yes, thank you to the philosophers, who are finally starting to point out the scientific fraud of our paternalistic, child rape covering up “mental health professionals.”

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  7. “What kind of thing is a psychiatric disorder?”

    There is an even more basic question: “IS there such a thing as a psychiatric disorder”?

    The answer is no.

    There is a secondary issue touched upon here which is worthy of consideration: Is the physiological apparatus which mediates the perception of stress, pain, etc. be considered the source of such discomfort? Again, obviously, no — anymore than the adrenaline coursing through one’s circulatory system should be considered the source of the terror or rage which triggers it.

    If one believes that psychiatry is a science, sans philosophy or faith, ask a few psychiatrists to explain death.

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    • Exactly. I would push this philosophical exercise a step further. Is there any such thing as psychiatry? In other words, is the medical treatment of the soul really a viable enterprise? Psyche, soul, and iatros, medical treatment… can those two things really be combined? I don’t think so. In the first place, a psychiatrist doesn’t know anything about the soul. In the second place, he doesn’t know anything about medical treatment. The answer to the question is, sadly, that there are psychiatrists. There are “soul doctors.” But their work has nothing to do with medicine or healing. Psychiatry is the pseudo-scientific system of slavery that wrecks havoc upon the innocent, camouflaged by the prestige of “medicine.”

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      • Hey DS, it’s good to see you posting critically again. That last sentence you wrote really hits the nail on the head and echoes my own belief. It bears repeating.

        “Psychiatry is the pseudo-scientific system of slavery that wreaks havoc upon the innocent, camouflaged by the prestige of “medicine”.”

        You really captured the essence of what so many of us are trying to say here into a compact soundbite. Nice work. Hope you’ll start contributing more again. Some of us here in the peanut gallery really value and miss your commentary.

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  8. Psychiatry is voodoo.

    It only looks at – or pretends to look at – one factor shaping human behavior: biology. Among other things it overlooks the fact that humans are conscious organisms, that consciousness is an interactive process with the organism’s environment, hence that their interaction – experience – will profoundly influence the organism. A serious oversight for the putative science of the mind.

    Actual physical pathologies affecting brain and neurological function such as concussion, meningitis, Parkinson’s disease, neurosyphilis, brain tumor, multiple sclerosis, encephalitis, Down syndrome – which can profoundly effect mental states and behavior – are the province of neurology or other specialties that deal with medicine’s proper realm: observable, measurable, physical injury, disease, and maldevelopment.
    Psychiatric disorders do not appear in neurology pathology textbooks for the reason that they have no physical markers, structural or chemical, hence cannot be diagnosed by physical tests.

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    • Lerkkweed.
      So if “psychiatric disorders are in neurology textbooks”, as say, identified by that little neuron there, doing something, or that little dot over there lighting up………do we then subscribe to the “disorder”, because it is now part of neurology?

      We don’t want behaviours identified via neurology. It is what was referred to within the article, at least the way I read it.
      It is psychiatry aim to get into neurology, because they bank on the people that are into science and not really into the whole absurdity of behaviour being classified as disordered.
      Maybe I misunderstood your post. I’m not one that will ever believe despite what is evidenced. All evidence about behaviour is “working backwards”

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  9. I haven’t read this article, but I own up to being irritated by its content judging by Zenobia’s (excellent) summary. What is the matter with philosophers who write about ‘mental health’??? They above all should be careful with their language and wary of unquestioned assumptions, but as several people have said, their uncritical starting point is that there is such a thing as a ‘psychiatric DISORDER’, complete with ‘symptoms’ – begging about 100 questions and setting us up for a kind of ‘how many angels can dance on a pinhead’ chase. I am continually dismayed by how deeply these assumptions have infiltrated the minds of philosophers as well as service providers/users. I suggest the authors start with the question ‘How do we understand the emotional distress and suffering that is labelled as psychiatric disorder?’ and take it from there…. There is plenty to draw on!

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  10. Well, YAY. Great article.
    I do hope a psychiatrist could fathom the scope of the article.

    My disorders
    In fact they tried to protect me from psychiatry.
    Indeed the disorders are often the most functioning part of me, it had merely been not seen which is part of a growing process.
    Nothing like having people suggest that your disorder is disordered and that, “here is the way to fix IT” …….”it comes from trauma”
    “it’s a mental illness”……
    Thank god for meddlers that can tell me what went wrong.

    Society could not possibly survive without it’s disorders. What fun would that be?

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