... to think that psychiatry is a bit of a con ...?

[Rommell]

... hidebound as it is by cultural and societal norms. Yet it posits that the criteria it creates are truths as to who is 'well' and who is not. How can a person's mind, their psyche, their being be 'ill' anyway? Plus if it really were possible for a drug to produce 'correct' thinking, then the person who created it would be ruler of the world.

Have you been at the liquor cabinet/spiff?

Yabu. Completely.

Could go with long, well argued reply, but suspect it would fall on deaf ears, YABVU.

Good grief

Yes and no. The main points would be covered in an A level sociology text book I think.

It's all theory, all of it, but some of it works for some people. So if it does.. no harm

almondcake - care to elaborate?

NurseyWursey, I would agree with that except that psychiatry does do harm. Great harm. One of the biggest issues with it is that of compulsion and the violence it inflicts on patients in the guise of 'treating' them. And then there are the drugs themselves, which are harmful, especially when one looks at things like anti-psychotics.

Antimatter posted this on the thread I started asking why this one had been deleted:

www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/thomas-szasz-psychiatrist-and-author-of-the-influential-book-the-myth-of-mental-illness-8166439.html

I think it makes for interesting reading, especially this quote, which says what I was trying to say in the header much better than I can:

The brain is a bodily organ. The mind and thinking processes are in the brain. Psychiatry treats the brain. Psychiatry treats a bodily organ.

Hobnobissupersweet, I would really like to read a long well-argued reply. Or at least, I would have liked to read it last night, except that MNHQ deleted the bloody thread last night and so shut down the discussion and now it's Saturday and I have stuff to do. But I would be interested in your thoughts on the matter.

And I'm surprised this thread stays when you are posting links and supporting the idea that mental illness is a myth. Mental illness is as real as physical illness.

Is 'mind' the same as 'brain' though, Amytheflag? And does psychiatry treat the 'mind'? Sure, when a person ingests, say, an anti-psychotic drug, it will sedate them and shut down elements of cognitive function. But does it actually 'cure' what is termed as 'psychosis'? I don't really think that it does, in that it does not change thoughts.

I see what you mean Rommell. But the best of them can be helpful

YAB utterly U.

In what way is what we call mental illness the same as physical illness? Can it be detected by clinical physical observation? Or is it, rather, diagnosed by a person or people measuring their patient against cultural and societal norms? Does that really constitute an illness?

Nb I am not saying that mental distress does not exist; of course people do have thoughts that are troubling. I am merely suggesting that that the way in which these thoughts and experiences are categorised and treated is unhelpful and unsatisfactory.

Interested to know why you haven't posted this on the mental health board. Maybe it's because you'll get told to feck off!

Tbh I didn't know there was a mental health board. Oh well, it's here now. And I'm already being told to feck off, although maybe not in so many words - this thread even got deleted last night, ffs, by some over-zealous Night Watch person (a psychiatrist?!).

It is a illness as the brain is an organ and it does not function correctly. Much like if your kidneys were not working correctly, you would have an illness.

YANBU, I have worked in this field, and absolutely agree. This is not to say that the mental distress and phenomena that is categorised as illness, and therefore in need of medication, is not very real and genuine. It is psychiatry I do not believe in, not the experiences of mental distress that people suffer.
I think it is a damaging and outdated patriacal institution that often worsens people's suffering, sedates, subdues and tries to control them and because of its power and dominance limits the access that people in pain have to psychological help that could really support them and make a difference in their lives.
This explains my view: www.theguardian.com/society/2013/may/12/psychiatrists-under-fire-mental-health

YABScientologist

That would be true for neurology. I'm not sure that the same can be said for psychiatry. Psychiatrists do not examine brains, do they? I mean, they don't scan them, or cut them open, and find bits that are not working properly and then treat them.

Or maybe by someone who thought you were a goady twat? You obviously have no experience of mental health or Illness for that matter and am unsure why you would start such an inflammatory thread.

I think your initial OP looked quite goady tbh and that's why it got hidden temporarily (not deleted) I think if you had written a bit more of an intelligent OP then people could have seen it as a genuine discussion.

Theres many physical illnesses that aren't cured and are managed. Does that make that treatment a con? Wheelchairs don't make cure people and make them walk again, they aid people to live a normal life as possible. Anti psychotics don't cure people, they aid them to live a normal life as possible. It doesn't make it a con.

You're highlighting your ignorance now. Psychiatrists do treat parts of the brain that aren't working properly. They do it through chemicals rather than chopping the brain open but it doesn't make it any less of a treatment.

I am thinking goady fucker now too. At least have some basic knowledge of this stuff before you try to nitpick it.

My DH is on anti psychotics, without them he is ill. With them his illness is managed and controlled.