Above all, I must not play God
By J.M. Hamilton 5-29-13
We'd like to think we've come a long distance from the Dark Ages but in the field of diagnosing illnesses of the mind - we've barely taken a step forward. In the practice of modern medicine, doctors and scientist make breakthrough after breakthrough utilizing real scientific evidence, biology, facts and studies that can be replicated by their peers; but in one field, the division of psychiatry - there is little in the way of hard scientific evidence or biology, backing their diagnosis or their recommended cures. In the field of psychiatry and the behavioral sciences, it's as if we never left the dark ages, and are still dependent upon quacks and witch doctors.
This was recently on full display for all to see when the head of Psychiatry in this country, Dr. Thomas Insel, criticized the DSM - the bible for the pseudo-science of psychiatry - as lacking in scientific evidence. Instead mental diagnosis is based upon symptoms, and consensus - conjecture - and opinion among mental healthcare professionals. It took great courage for Dr. Insel to tell the truth about his own profession, and hopefully his candor will open the door to more scientific enlightenment, biological links to illnesses of the mind and brain, and greater knowledge on how the mind and brain actually operates.
As it stands presently, however, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, or DSM is a fraud, utilized in courtrooms, prisons, schools, as an excuse to put people away, or dose them with often harmful psychotropic drugs. In effect often giving millions of American adults, and sadly children, a chemical lobotomy.... Subjugating the mind, body, and perhaps the soul, with chemical handcuffs in an attempt to help the patient achieve some perceived “societal norm.”
We all know that prescriptions for Adderall and Ritalin (aka kiddie coke) have soared to epidemic proportions in this nation because young children - often boys- allegedly "act out," in increasingly feminized and over-crowded classrooms, where physical education is cut out of the curriculum. I believe this is now a nine billion dollar industry.
We'd like to think we've come a long distance from the Dark Ages but in the field of diagnosing illnesses of the mind - we've barely taken a step forward. In the practice of modern medicine, doctors and scientist make breakthrough after breakthrough utilizing real scientific evidence, biology, facts and studies that can be replicated by their peers; but in one field, the division of psychiatry - there is little in the way of hard scientific evidence or biology, backing their diagnosis or their recommended cures. In the field of psychiatry and the behavioral sciences, it's as if we never left the dark ages, and are still dependent upon quacks and witch doctors.
This was recently on full display for all to see when the head of Psychiatry in this country, Dr. Thomas Insel, criticized the DSM - the bible for the pseudo-science of psychiatry - as lacking in scientific evidence. Instead mental diagnosis is based upon symptoms, and consensus - conjecture - and opinion among mental healthcare professionals. It took great courage for Dr. Insel to tell the truth about his own profession, and hopefully his candor will open the door to more scientific enlightenment, biological links to illnesses of the mind and brain, and greater knowledge on how the mind and brain actually operates.
As it stands presently, however, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, or DSM is a fraud, utilized in courtrooms, prisons, schools, as an excuse to put people away, or dose them with often harmful psychotropic drugs. In effect often giving millions of American adults, and sadly children, a chemical lobotomy.... Subjugating the mind, body, and perhaps the soul, with chemical handcuffs in an attempt to help the patient achieve some perceived “societal norm.”
We all know that prescriptions for Adderall and Ritalin (aka kiddie coke) have soared to epidemic proportions in this nation because young children - often boys- allegedly "act out," in increasingly feminized and over-crowded classrooms, where physical education is cut out of the curriculum. I believe this is now a nine billion dollar industry.
It's become the new fall back dejure for student, parent and teacher
failings: Namely, if little Johnny or Sally are struggling in school
or with life in general, don't worry. It's not their fault, nor is it your
fault dear parents, but we have some wonderful meds for your children to take the
edge off. Big Pharma, of course, makes billions off these diagnosis’
and the resulting prescription; and the DSM and psychiatry are complicit in
turning this nation into a bunch of pharmaceutical speed and benzo junkies.
Again, this is done because these adults and children do not fall within the parameters of what the psychiatric community perceives to be the societal norm. That there is literally no scientific evidence backing these eminentos suppositions of what constitutes the "norm, “and that the so-called societal norm is ever evolving and changing never seems to dawn on many coven members. To admit that they were frauds, no better than witch doctors and shamans, could be damaging to their professional standing, their careers -and their livelihood.... Not to mention the legitimacy of billions of dollars in prescribed psychoactive medications annually. By way of example, the DSM used to call homosexual behavior a sociopathic mental disorder, and now it is absent from more recent DSM editions, which just goes to prove that the DSM is based upon arbitrary and capricious whims of what constitutes the "societal norm," and little in the way of hard scientific fact. In the latest DSM addition, if you grieve for a loved one for more than two weeks, you’re damaged goods with a mental health issue; and presumably in dire need of therapy and medication.
Again, this is done because these adults and children do not fall within the parameters of what the psychiatric community perceives to be the societal norm. That there is literally no scientific evidence backing these eminentos suppositions of what constitutes the "norm, “and that the so-called societal norm is ever evolving and changing never seems to dawn on many coven members. To admit that they were frauds, no better than witch doctors and shamans, could be damaging to their professional standing, their careers -and their livelihood.... Not to mention the legitimacy of billions of dollars in prescribed psychoactive medications annually. By way of example, the DSM used to call homosexual behavior a sociopathic mental disorder, and now it is absent from more recent DSM editions, which just goes to prove that the DSM is based upon arbitrary and capricious whims of what constitutes the "societal norm," and little in the way of hard scientific fact. In the latest DSM addition, if you grieve for a loved one for more than two weeks, you’re damaged goods with a mental health issue; and presumably in dire need of therapy and medication.
How convenient.
What will be the result of the new DSM 5.0? More of the same. More drugs. More junkies. More aggrandizement of shaman/mental health professionals, and the Big Pharma cartel growing richer off your misery and addiction, and spiraling healthcare costs. More people labeled with disorders and pathologized, the majority of whom are just suffering through life's travails.
The WSJ's Kristen Gerencher noted as much in a recent piece, when she quoted a former chair of a DSM task force, Dr. Allen Frances: “Drug companies take marketing advantage of the loose DSM definitions by promoting the misleading idea that everyday life problems are actually undiagnosed psychiatric illness caused by a chemical imbalance and requiring a solution in pill form. This results in misallocation of resources, with excessive diagnosis and treatment for essentially healthy persons (who may be harmed by it) and relative neglect of those with clear psychiatric illness (whose access to care has been sharply reduced by slashed state mental health budgets.)”
Moreover, “We’re treating childhood like a disease,” said Frances, author of “Saving Normal” and professor emeritus and former chair of psychiatry at Duke University.
By way of analogy, say Aunt Rita is showing signs of illness, shortness of breath, and red blotches on her body... A medical doctor would look for causes of the illness, shallow breathing, and the subdural hematoma, and treat the illness not the symptoms; but modern psychiatry would treat the bruise, and shallow breathing with meds, perhaps oxygen, and therapy without understanding the underlying cause or the symptoms..... Meanwhile Aunt Rita very well might die from internal bleeding, because her metaphorical mental healthcare professional never bothered to discover the source of her medical problems. Of course diseases and disorders of the mind are rarely fatal in the short run, which probably explains why there has been a complete lack of a sense of urgency to expose this field to real science. That and surely, the complexity of the brain and human mind present a huge challenge.
To be totally candid with my readers, my interactions with mental health professionals, although limited, have been less than superlative. I've watched one psychologist lie on a witness stand and completely botch his investigation into the abuse of a child. I've watched this same doctor threaten said child for requesting to live with the non-abusive parent. In the middle of a contentious child custody hearing, the good doctor authorized one parent to conduct an investigation on the other parent’s property. While the child was suicidal, the psychologist left the child in the custody of the offending parent. Separately, I've heard – first hand – a mental health professional subscribe to the belief that the entire nation should be in therapy (perhaps it is so?) I've heard yet another state that they went into this field so as to study their own personal demons, and properly medicate, a not uncommon practice I was assured.
We often forget that in totalitarian states, such as the former Soviet Union and Red China, that psychology and psychiatry are often used to control political dissidents, since anyone who would dare disagree with the state should obviously be committed. Spend a week or two in solitary confinement and the totalitarian prophecy becomes self-fulfilling. Indeed, after a tour within solitary confinement, one would begin to manifest mental illness and pathologies.
What will be the result of the new DSM 5.0? More of the same. More drugs. More junkies. More aggrandizement of shaman/mental health professionals, and the Big Pharma cartel growing richer off your misery and addiction, and spiraling healthcare costs. More people labeled with disorders and pathologized, the majority of whom are just suffering through life's travails.
The WSJ's Kristen Gerencher noted as much in a recent piece, when she quoted a former chair of a DSM task force, Dr. Allen Frances: “Drug companies take marketing advantage of the loose DSM definitions by promoting the misleading idea that everyday life problems are actually undiagnosed psychiatric illness caused by a chemical imbalance and requiring a solution in pill form. This results in misallocation of resources, with excessive diagnosis and treatment for essentially healthy persons (who may be harmed by it) and relative neglect of those with clear psychiatric illness (whose access to care has been sharply reduced by slashed state mental health budgets.)”
Moreover, “We’re treating childhood like a disease,” said Frances, author of “Saving Normal” and professor emeritus and former chair of psychiatry at Duke University.
By way of analogy, say Aunt Rita is showing signs of illness, shortness of breath, and red blotches on her body... A medical doctor would look for causes of the illness, shallow breathing, and the subdural hematoma, and treat the illness not the symptoms; but modern psychiatry would treat the bruise, and shallow breathing with meds, perhaps oxygen, and therapy without understanding the underlying cause or the symptoms..... Meanwhile Aunt Rita very well might die from internal bleeding, because her metaphorical mental healthcare professional never bothered to discover the source of her medical problems. Of course diseases and disorders of the mind are rarely fatal in the short run, which probably explains why there has been a complete lack of a sense of urgency to expose this field to real science. That and surely, the complexity of the brain and human mind present a huge challenge.
To be totally candid with my readers, my interactions with mental health professionals, although limited, have been less than superlative. I've watched one psychologist lie on a witness stand and completely botch his investigation into the abuse of a child. I've watched this same doctor threaten said child for requesting to live with the non-abusive parent. In the middle of a contentious child custody hearing, the good doctor authorized one parent to conduct an investigation on the other parent’s property. While the child was suicidal, the psychologist left the child in the custody of the offending parent. Separately, I've heard – first hand – a mental health professional subscribe to the belief that the entire nation should be in therapy (perhaps it is so?) I've heard yet another state that they went into this field so as to study their own personal demons, and properly medicate, a not uncommon practice I was assured.
We often forget that in totalitarian states, such as the former Soviet Union and Red China, that psychology and psychiatry are often used to control political dissidents, since anyone who would dare disagree with the state should obviously be committed. Spend a week or two in solitary confinement and the totalitarian prophecy becomes self-fulfilling. Indeed, after a tour within solitary confinement, one would begin to manifest mental illness and pathologies.
At what distance are our nations schools,
courtrooms and prisons from this totalitarian nightmare, when we allow mental
healthcare professionals considerable say and sway over the medication and
lives of children and adults, based purely on conjecture, perceived notions of
societal norms, and pseudo-science?
The Hippocratic oath mandates that doctors do no harm. However, when mental health care is based upon popular beliefs as to what constitutes societal norms, speculation, and anything but science.... Then our mental health professionals are potentially straying into another admonishment made by that same oath: That of playing God with the lives of their patients.
Most telling was a quote from an eminent psychiatrist in a recent NY Times piece: Dr. Jeffrey Lieberman, the chairman of the psychiatry department at Columbia and president-elect of the American Psychiatric Association, which publishes the D.S.M., said “The last thing we want to do is be defensive or apologetic about the state of our field. But at the same time, we’re not satisfied with it either. There’s nothing we’d like better than to have more scientific progress.”
Sounds like the good Doctor has taken half a step forward by acknowledging his profession’s problem. To which I respond: Doctor, heal thyself!
To see just how insidious a mental health care professional can behave in a courtroom -please read Mrs. Marshfield available today on Amazon.com.
Check out the NIMH findings here. The Hippocratic oath mandates that doctors do no harm. However, when mental health care is based upon popular beliefs as to what constitutes societal norms, speculation, and anything but science.... Then our mental health professionals are potentially straying into another admonishment made by that same oath: That of playing God with the lives of their patients.
Most telling was a quote from an eminent psychiatrist in a recent NY Times piece: Dr. Jeffrey Lieberman, the chairman of the psychiatry department at Columbia and president-elect of the American Psychiatric Association, which publishes the D.S.M., said “The last thing we want to do is be defensive or apologetic about the state of our field. But at the same time, we’re not satisfied with it either. There’s nothing we’d like better than to have more scientific progress.”
Sounds like the good Doctor has taken half a step forward by acknowledging his profession’s problem. To which I respond: Doctor, heal thyself!
To see just how insidious a mental health care professional can behave in a courtroom -please read Mrs. Marshfield available today on Amazon.com.
Copyright JM Hamilton Publishing 2013
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