Some people take mental disorders to be restrictive myths that do not exist at all
Some people believe psychiatry can find the true essence of mental disorders. Another perspective on psychiatry presents just the opposite viewâthe skeptical and solipsistic doubt that man can ever catch protean reality by the tail and know things as they truly are. They would argue that mental disorders are no more than arbitrary and sometimes noxious âmythsâ that unfairly restrict the freedom of choice of psychiatric patients. They worry about the slippery slope that eventually could be extended to other vulnerable groups. Indeed, there is reason for this concernâpsychiatric diagnosis is now being abused for preventive detention of rapists in the United States and peasants complaining about corruption in China and previously was an excuse to hospitalize political dissidents in the Soviet Union.
It is of course imperative that we protect against the misuse of psychiatry in the service of legal or political mastersâbut this perspective far overstates itâs case. Mental disorders are not complete myths. Though not a discrete âdisease entityâ (like, say, a brain tumor or a stroke), schizophrenia, for example, produces profound and prolonged âdis-easeââthat is, distress and incapacity actually experienced by many. The patterns of its presentation are clearly recognizable, can be reliably diagnosed, have brain imaging correlates, predict course, and respond to specific treatments. It is the same for many other mental disorders. Schizophrenia is real enough and no psychiatric invention for those who suffer from it and for their loved ones.
References
- Frances, Allen. (2013). Saving Normal CHAPTER 1. Whatâs Normal and Whatâs Not? (p. 39). New York, NY: HarperCollins.
Metadata
Type:đ´ Tags: Psychiatry / Philosophy / Epistemology Status:âď¸