Critical Psychiatry Textbook
Mad In America is publishing a serialized version of Peter Gøtzsche’s book, Critical Psychiatry Textbook. Each week, a new section will be published on this page. Instructions on how to purchase the full book can be found here. To see the list of all references cited, click here.
My book describes what is wrong with the psychiatry textbooks used by students of medicine and psychology. I read the five most used textbooks in Denmark and uncovered a litany of misleading and erroneous statements about the causes of mental health disorders, if they are genetic, if they can be detected in a brain scan, if they are caused by a chemical imbalance, if psychiatric diagnoses are reliable, and what the benefits and harms are of psychiatric drugs and electroshocks. Much of what is claimed amounts to scientific dishonesty. I also describe fraud and serious manipulations with the data in often cited research. I conclude that biological psychiatry has not led to anything of use, and that psychiatry as a medical specialty is so harmful that it should be disbanded.