Philosophy of Psychiatry (2015)
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Philosophy of Psychiatry (2015)
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Re: Philosophy of Psychiatry (2015)
#2Still reading the article, and this likely is addressed therein, but I think the problem or "difficulty" with the "strong" medical model of psychiatry, which seeks to know the underlying biological pathology involved in mental disorders (as opposed to the "minimal" model, which treats mental disorders as heuristic labels of bundles of symptoms that tend to follow similar evolutions in most cases) ... is that there will be many conditions, traits, behaviors that society sees as pathological that won't be distinguishable on the "hardware" / brain structure & abnormalities level, but will be purely seen on the software level alone. It likely will take a long time for us to see, or will be never, that we'll manage to observe brains running at this level ... and too many pathologies will be completely unknowable to a strong medical modelist.
I also hope and believe that humanity transcends biology / hardware / strange-loopiness-in-software. We see less and less of a transcending viewpoint in "the [rational] West", and that belief still present comes less now from traditional sources and more from the influence of Eastern religion / philosophy. From a Screwtape Letters viewpoint the ultimate prosecuting lawyer is comfortable with the West in its current materialistic stupor ... but I grew up in circumstances where transcending factors were much more plausible and understood.
Re: Philosophy of Psychiatry (2015)
#3> They worry that we are lumping together different groups of people based on behavioral evidence alone, when in fact their observable similarities mask important underlying differences, including differences between normal people who are troubled but basically healthy, and their pathological counterparts.
I think the pile of circumstantial evidence for this being the case is pretty large at this point. There is no single treatment that works for a majority of people with major depressive disorder. The types of schizophrenia are sufficiently different that using the same term for them is practically misleading and seems to be driven more by tradition than by any consistent system (cf. diabetes). There's at least one lab test that is believed to identify a type of depression; it seemingly fell out of favor because nobody figured out how to choose a treatment based on it and a negative result doesn't exclude an MDD diagnosis [1].
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dexamethasone_suppression_test
Re: Philosophy of Psychiatry (2015)
#4Psychiatry is a failed science. False promises of cures that usually do more harm with debilitating "side effects" to their drugs and barbaric shock treatments. Best to seek the help of a real medical professional, nutritionist, fitness trainer, etc. All these have a better chance to help you than the dice roll of a psychiatric "diagnosis".
Re: Philosophy of Psychiatry (2015)
#5Psychiatry is a failed science. False promises of cures that usually do more harm with debilitating "side effects" to their drugs and barbaric shock treatments. Best to seek the help of a real medical professional, nutritionist, fitness trainer, etc. All these have a better chance to help you than the dice roll of a psychiatric "diagnosis".
You rail against psychiatry, yet list "nutritionist"?
Re: Philosophy of Psychiatry (2015)
#6Psychiatry is a failed science. False promises of cures that usually do more harm with debilitating "side effects" to their drugs and barbaric shock treatments. Best to seek the help of a real medical professional, nutritionist, fitness trainer, etc. All these have a better chance to help you than the dice roll of a psychiatric "diagnosis".
On board with your comment until
> a real medical professional, nutritionist, fitness trainer, etc
Family practitioners also commonly prescribe antidepressants and the like. I'd say there is still wild debate about what is a healthy diet. Until recently (and maybe even still) most nutritionists would prescribe something aligning with the Nixon-administration-guided carbohydrate pyramid. Anything a fitness trainer guides you to do is likely less effective than the basics (squats, deadlifts, running).
There is substantial B.S. in all of the professions you mention. The least one can do is find the person dishing it in the right realm.
If a person has schizophrenia, it still massively behooves them or their family to seek the aid of a psychiatrist. A hot mess of conflicting theory and pseudoscience, yes, but it's all we have.
Re: Philosophy of Psychiatry (2015)
#7Psychiatry is a failed science. False promises of cures that usually do more harm with debilitating "side effects" to their drugs and barbaric shock treatments. Best to seek the help of a real medical professional, nutritionist, fitness trainer, etc. All these have a better chance to help you than the dice roll of a psychiatric "diagnosis".
You rail against psychiatry, yet list "nutritionist"?
People have such terrible diets in the US. Deficiency in certain vitamins and other essential nutrients is scientifically proven by medical science to lead to mental health-type symptoms.
Some people need help to learn what foods to eat properly because their parents never taught them how or they just have bad eating habits.
Re: Philosophy of Psychiatry (2015)
#8Psychiatry is a failed science. False promises of cures that usually do more harm with debilitating "side effects" to their drugs and barbaric shock treatments. Best to seek the help of a real medical professional, nutritionist, fitness trainer, etc. All these have a better chance to help you than the dice roll of a psychiatric "diagnosis".
You rail against psychiatry, yet list "nutritionist"?
Also there's a very easy experiment you can use to prove this out at your next family reunion, Christmas or Thanksgiving party, etc. Feed a small child only sugar, watch him turn on first ADD then complete depression as you fail to continue to feed him sugar...
Re: Philosophy of Psychiatry (2015)
#9Mental diseases are not really understood the way, say, liver diseases are understood, as a pathology of the body and its tissues and cells. Researchers understand the underlying structure of very few mental ailments. What psychiatrists call a disease is usually just a label for a group of symptoms. As the eminent psychiatrist Allen Frances writes in his book, “Saving Normal,” a word like schizophrenia is a useful construct, not a disease: “It is a description of a particular set of psychiatric problems, not an explanation of their cause.” - David brooks.
Re: Philosophy of Psychiatry (2015)
#10Earlier quoted context omitted.
You rail against psychiatry, yet list "nutritionist"?
People have such terrible diets in the US. Deficiency in certain vitamins and other essential nutrients is scientifically proven by medical science to lead to mental health-type symptoms. Some people need help to learn what foods to eat properly because their parents never taught them how or they just have bad eating habits.
> scientifically proven by medical science to lead to mental health-type symptoms.
Which vitamin or mineral deficiency leads to psychosis? (With a link to this scientific proof please)