Cracked: Why Psychiatry is Doing More Harm Than Good

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For myself, the experience of being held in a psychiatric unit was in itself a source of distress, and just being given tablets to cure me was dehumanising. A particularly interesting chapter is about a young psychiatrist who is targeted by a drug company to be trained and spruik their wares and also an exposition of the relevant sales strategies and methods.

James Davies publishes new book “Sedated: How Modern Dr James Davies publishes new book “Sedated: How Modern

Later he talks with a prominent critic of the current DSM (5) with Allen Frances, who expresses his view that many normal behaviours are now being pathologised.

Davies uses the term "theory" to describe this view and demonstrates there's no evidence for this presumption, which appears to be a dogma (My doctor believes it). No longer the fire remain on the side shore of ‘developed’ nations in global north, the evidences in this study suggest proactive preparedness against impending human disaster and caution probable hazard from adverse effects of both antipsychotics and development. James Davies gained his PhD in social and medical anthropology from the University of Oxford in 2006. While such understanding may increasingly appears to fulfil the expectations of various social classes within Indian society by providing them a gateway to a form of global citizen-ship, this paper also shows how such notions feed into a state sponsored agenda of cost cutting public health care resources, thus impacting upon the well-being of both patients and professionals.

Cracked: Why Psychiatry is Doing More Harm Than Good

He was nothing short of a zealot who cherrypicked every anecdotal piece of information he could get his hands on, threw it in a book along side of aforementioned arguments, and went on to spout his constant mantra about how pain is natural.Interestingly, I looked up a citation Davies makes to Aboraya, 2006, which he says “showed that reliability actually has not improved in thirty years. However, I really didn't like the extreme approach in this book, as well as the awfully subjective examples (like interviews, "my neighbor once said" or "this person thinks that his son was misdiagnosed" type of shit) and far-fetched conclusions. Exercise regulates hormones and neurotransmitters, reduces inflammation, increases BDNF; among many other benefits and harm reductions. The author claims that doctors and professionals are over-worked and don't have the time to effectively invest in patient care, that it is much easier and quicker to prescribe a drug whether or not that will be effective.

Cracked: Why Psychiatry is Doing More Harm Than Good - Goodreads

I'd say it's even dangerous to read such a thing if you haven't studied psychology or psychiatry or don't have a very critical mind. Some of the later chapters (dealing with risk-taking and statistics and probabilities) are denser than others (some readers may resent such demands on System 2!I found the experience of reading the book to be rather like listening to a pharmaceutical sales representative trying to persuade me of the merits of their product: colourful but replete with distorted evidence, hyperbole, simplistic arguments and anecdotes to support their claims.

Cracked - James Davies - Google Books Cracked - James Davies - Google Books

If, in the world of psychiatry, the DSM is Holy Scripture, Cracked is set to become a heretical text. Kahneman continually refers to System 2 as “lazy”: We don’t want to think rigorously about something. I've read Frances' book Saving Normal, on this topic, and it appears in both instances that, for all the valid points he makes, Frances is unable to put himself outside the thought of his profession. Given the critiques of the psychiatric asylum, this space could be seen as a space outside or beyond the asylum, where women instead find asylum? His claim that "the only ones who have ever benefitted from psychiatric drugs are the drug companies" is not just biased, but very ill-informed.The paper closes with an ironic resolve by offering a new discursive architecture for the profession of psychiatry. The whole part where the author blames the DSM is just so unnecessary - the DSM is already out there and I still think it's better than nothing - the probability of misdiagnosing would be a lot greater if not for the DSM.