Responding to Daniel Morehead, MD, Psychiatry’s Latest Champion

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On February 15, 2022, Daniel Morehead, MD, a psychiatrist and director of training at Tufts Medical Center in Boston, published an article in Psychiatric Times.  The title is Just Because We Do Not Know Everything Does Not Mean We Do Not Know Anything.  The article is designated Episode 1 of a new series, and the subtitle is “Exploring how to approach the criticisms of psychiatry.”

INTRODUCTION

Perhaps the most noteworthy thing about this piece is the title:  Just Because We Do Not Know Everything Does Not Mean We Do Not Know Anything.  There is, I suggest, an implication here that psychiatry has been accused of not knowing anything.  I’m fairly familiar with most of the criticisms that have been levelled against psychiatry, but I have never heard or read any criticism of psychiatry that entailed allegations of such profound ignorance.  I think the vast majority of psychiatry’s critics would acknowledge that psychiatrists know how to tie their shoes, drive their cars, conduct themselves in social situations, etc…  So why would Dr. Morehead choose to open his affirmation of psychiatry – his defense of his chosen profession – with this undermining caricature of his profession’s critics?

Perhaps the answer to this question is found in his first paragraph:

“It is all too easy to be negative. It is far easier to criticize than contribute—easier to tear down than to build up. Positivity fades, but negativity seems to build on itself.1 ‘Friends come and go; enemies accumulate,’ as Mark Twain put it.”

It is by the same token easier to score cheap and invalid points against one’s critics than to expend the time and energy necessary to examine their criticisms.

In his second paragraph, Dr. Morehead continues this theme:

“It is easy to be negative because it is natural to be negative. As human beings—indeed as mammals—our nervous systems give more weight, more attention, and more energy to negative and threatening experiences than to positive ones1. So at a time when many medical and scientific authorities are viewed with suspicion, negativity about psychiatry is hardly shocking. Even vaccines have become a hard sell in our polarized and angry public culture.”

The essential point here is that it is “natural to be negative”.  The reference that Dr. Morehead quotes is Rozin and Royzman, Negativity Bias, Negativity Dominance, and Contagion (Personality and Social Psychology Review, Nov 2001)  This is a complex paper, but on at least one point, the authors are abundantly clear:

“Although negativity bias is often striking, it is far from universal. On the contrary, there is sufficient evidence for a positive bias that an entire book, The Polyanna Principle (Matlin & Stang, 1978), has amply documented the wide range of positive biases. These appear in higher frequency of positive words, positive experiences, and positive views of the world, and in other domains. This puts us in the peculiar position of describing what we believe to be a basic tendency in the face of documented evidence for the opposite tendency, as well.” (p 297)

Like I said, it’s a complex paper, and certainly can’t be summed up by the simplistic slogan “it is natural to be negative”.  But psychiatrists have always been strong on mindless slogans, e.g. “Treatment Works”; “Real Illness Just Like Diabetes”; “End the Stigma”; etc.

Note also the way Dr. Morehead includes psychiatrists in the group “medical and scientific authorities”, ignoring the reality that most critiques of psychiatry are founded on the fact that in its essential nature, psychiatry is neither medical nor scientific.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

“Psychiatry has always been subject to more criticism and abuse than any other medical specialty.”

Note first the unwarranted pairing of criticism and abuse, with its subtle innuendo that all critics of psychiatry are also “abusers” of psychiatry.

But more to the point, if psychiatry has been subject to more criticism than any other medical specialty, shouldn’t psychiatry be taking this seriously?  Shouldn’t they be looking impartially at the criticisms, evaluating objectively their merits and demerits?  Wouldn’t that be a scientific approach?  One would think so.  But Dr. Morehead will have none of that.  He likens our critiques to “the elevator music of our professional pursuits” – something of no consequence and best to be ignored.  “Negativity about psychiatry has become a long-running and tacitly accepted tradition, both inside and outside psychiatry.”

I have to say that I haven’t encountered much criticism of psychiatry coming from within psychiatry, but Dr. Morehead is, I imagine, in a better position to judge this than I am.  If he had thought to include some examples of this in his paper, his claims might have a measure of credibility.

Note also that Dr. Morehead is betraying his prejudices by referring to criticism of psychiatry as negativity about psychiatry.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

“Contemporary critics assert that psychiatrists make diagnoses on the basis of a pseudoscientific and self-serving DSM, and that we go about treatment through the use of dangerous and unjustified overprescribing. Because we lack a firm scientific grounding (they say), self-interest runs rampant. As psychiatrists, our arbitrary definitions of mental illness expand to include more and more ‘patients,’ while drug companies push treatments for newer and more expansive ‘disorders.’3,4

Actually, that’s not a bad summary of the main points of contention, but these are usually presented with a good deal more nuance than we’re seeing here.

Psychiatry is, at its very core, unscientific.  It does not discover its illnesses in nature through painstaking research.  Rather, it just makes them up on the basis of superficial loose groupings and their dogmatic fiats.  Sometimes they have to resort to voting to settle disagreements! (See DSM-III-R, page xx under heading Advisory Committees.  “However, several controversies, particularly in the areas of childhood, psychotic, anxiety, and sleep disorders, could be resolved only by actually polling committee members.”)  I would be hard put to conjure up something less scientific.  Oh.  Hang on – the infamous chemical imbalance theory of depression, avidly and mendaciously promoted by psychiatry, was indeed less scientific.  And if Dr. Morehead would like to have a serious debate on this issue, he could read my post Psychiatry DID Promote The Chemical Imbalance Theory on Mad in America and write a response.  I welcome critical comment.

It’s difficult to avoid the self-serving aspect of psychiatry, but it does not stem specifically from their lack of science.  It’s just plain old-fashioned greed.  And the arbitrarily adopted psychiatric “illnesses” have been expanding steadily since DSM-III.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

“Negativity about psychiatry is a major impediment to the mental health of this country. What do we do? We do not oppose negativity with more negativity. Our world has grown weary of flame wars. Instead, we oppose negativity with positivity. We oppose distortion with clarity. We do not deny the problems of psychiatry; we demonstrate its strengths. We accept legitimate criticisms of psychiatry, but place them in a wider and more affirmative context. In short, we show why psychiatric illness is medically real and psychiatric treatment is medically legitimate.”

So according to Dr. Morehead, psychiatrists do not deny the problems of psychiatry.  Actually, they do.  And Dr. Morehead has given us several examples in this essay.  But more to the point, if Dr. Morehead is claiming that he and his psychiatric colleagues do not deny the problems of psychiatry, why doesn’t he just scrap his present attempt to justify psychiatry and instead give us his list of psychiatry’s problems.  Perhaps we’d find some common ground!

And if he can show why psychiatric illness is medically real, then why not do so.  I, for one, would be “all ears”.

“As psychiatrists, the fundamentally benign nature of what we do has been too obvious for words. Few of us have wasted time debating it amongst ourselves. Instead, when we have spoken of psychiatry in the abstract, we have routinely spoken of its problems and limitations. Now, for the sake of the rest of the world, we need to habituate ourselves to explaining and affirming our field. We need to articulate a basic sense of what we are doing with each other, our patients, and the wider communities of which we are a part.”

Our intuition seldom alerts us to our own failings.  So Dr. Morehead’s notion that the fundamentally benign nature of what psychiatrists do has been too obvious for words, smacks a little of narcissistic delusion.  The rest of this paragraph trails off into incomprehensibility.  “Now, for the sake of the rest of the world, we need to habituate ourselves to explaining and affirming our field.”  For the sake of the rest of the world!!!  Is this some perverted form of neo-colonialism?  And “we need to clarify what we are doing with each other, with our patients and with the wider communities”.  I can find neither rhyme nor reason here.  But then it gets worse.

FINAL PARAGRAPH

“I believe we can answer the questions that dog psychiatry in a way that is honest, satisfying, and relatable to the public. I believe it is time for psychiatry to find its voice in a new way. We have nothing to hide and no need to patronize. We need not deal in denial, rationalization, or intellectualization. The truth will do nicely for our interests and for those we serve. We are psychiatrists, after all.”

This refers to the future episodes that Dr. Morehead is planning to publish.  It all sounds great, and I look forward to some good reading.

But what are we to make of his final sentence?

“We are psychiatrists, after all.”

Is this a boast or a confession?  Narcissism or humility.  I truly can’t tell, but probably narcissism.

 

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Mad in America hosts blogs by a diverse group of writers. These posts are designed to serve as a public forum for a discussion—broadly speaking—of psychiatry and its treatments. The opinions expressed are the writers’ own.

24 COMMENTS

  1. “As psychiatrists, the fundamentally benign nature of what we do has been too obvious for words”
    Dr Morehead has a very unusual definition of benign, to say the least. It sure is something to see grown adults pull down the wool over their own eyes and then so firmly hold it in place even as the winds of reality gust around them. Has he heard of Radical Acceptance therapy? I didn’t find it particularly helpful when I was using it, but I wasn’t living in a fantasy world like he is so perhaps that is the key.

    Thank you for your work, Philip.

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  2. Bases loaded, down by 3, bottom of the 9th, last batter, Dr. Hickey, and the count is 3-2….
    And, as usual, Dr. Hickey hits a Grand Slam Home Run right over the far center field wall, and out of the park….
    I really hope this “Morehead” dude reads my comment, and responds. But he won’t, because he’s a coward. And over-educated idiot. Arrogant. Delusional. Greedy. Cruel. Blind to his own hubris, and deaf to all legitimate criticism. His piece is fairly cleverly written, but so is any advertising copy. This Morehead dude must be a vegetarian, – everything he says is pure WORD SALAD….. GTFO, MOFO….LOL!….

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  3. Great article thank you! Two ex-psychiatrists that I know of that critique mainstream psychiatric practice are Kelly Brogan MD and Dr Andrew Kaufman, both based in USA. Also doing good work from within the profession is Australian Mark Horowitz who has used personal experience and MIA research to teach medicos about how to taper antidepressants and anti-psychotics safely.

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  4. Psychiatrists are Con artists who play the long con rather than the short con. Once the patient gets on the merry go round and rollercoaster ride then they finally enter the musical chairs phase and the patient is left on the floor with no savings and more likely worse off than before they started off in “treatment”.
    Unlike Bernie Madoff who always knew he was conning people, Psychiatrists delude themselves into believing that they are not.

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  5. Thanks Dr. Hickey, I always look forward to your superb deconstruction of the self-serving, hubristic, and defensive word salads put out there by psychiatry. If only they had some insight and a lot more honesty they wouldn’t have to be so defensive.

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  6. It’s tempting to call people like Dr. Morehead names – it is infuriating to read such self serving ad copy. But it’s simpler to point out that Pharma spends more on promotion than it does on research; and so much of its promotion is essentially free advertising for biological psychiatry. Dr. Morehead’s point of view is just silly – portraying psychiatry as victim, while in fact it wields the biggest PR megaphone anywhere, ruthlessly enforcing its orthodoxy on psychiatrists and other “mental health professionals.”

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  7. Excellent Dr Hickey! We are all very lucky to read your articles. I do hope a few young shrinks read and take note, and hope they make a decision to go their own way. Because the reality is, many folks will be unlucky enough to meet a shrink, so I hope for those kids, folks, that the shrink is not lying to himself and the poor person who sits in that awful chair of defamation.

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  8. Thank you for your amusing and incisive dissection, point by point, of Daniel Morehead’s laughably narcissistic justification of his beloved psychiatry. I share your amazement at and amusement of Dr. Morehead’s blatant self congratulatory assessment of his truly preposterous profession.

    I appreciate your bringing attention to his appalling lack of understanding and insight into psychiatry, as well as himself. His profound lack of self awareness is revealed in stark relief in the following statement: “we (psychiatrists) need not deal in denial, rationalization or intellectualization”. Really? How can he not see that’s all psychiatry amounts to?

    And isn’t Dr. Morehead’s tone truly remarkable? His embarrassingly impassioned defense of psychiatry shows us all how to be simultaneously self pitying AND hubristic. What will he think of next?

    All of Dr. Morehead’s wild proclamations, earnest protestations and foolhardy justifications are good for a laugh or two, but ultimately prove your closing remark, which is, that a bad case of narcissism is what’s REALLY going on.

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  9. This article proves that mainstream psychiatrists are finally on the defensive, and it’s none too soon. It must be a shock waking up to the fact they’re no longer able to fool the public. But their boo-hooing won’t change much, nor will their efforts at spinning the facts, because the cat’s finally out of the bag, and it’s the one cat THEY CAN’T CATCH –

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  10. Morehead is quoted as saying this (above):

    “It is all too easy to be negative. It is far easier to criticize than contribute—easier to tear down than to build up. Positivity fades, but negativity seems to build on itself.1 ‘Friends come and go; enemies accumulate,’ as Mark Twain put it.”

    That is funny, considering how Morehead replied to a Psychiatric Times article on benzodiazepines (June 2024) in which he titled “Everyone is Wrong About Benzodiazepines.” In this rebuttal, he did exactly the opposite of what was quoted. He was negative and critical and offered no insight. As an intern in the substance abuse setting and predominant medicaid centers, this is not my reality. From an existential point of view, HIS reality is neither right nor wrong. To write a title saying telling me and all others that we are wrong is both narcissistic and closed-minded. My reality is NOT your reality, so why are you trying to tell me otherwise, “Dr.” Morehead! Don’t tell me or others what you think I should believe just because you see it differently.

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