On the Ignorance of Psychiatry and the Ignorance of Critics

Dr Breggin summarises his own approach to depression in Toxic Psychiatry, in which he states that, “Despite all of this biopsychiatric propaganda ...depression is a readily understandable expression of human despair that is frequently responsive to psychosocial help.”

Nassir Ghaemi , a psychiatrist at Tufts, in his 2010 book with the telling title: ‘The Rise and Fall of the Biopsychosocial Model’ [2]. Ghaemi argues that the model is vague, too general, tells us nothing specific of value, hence is inefficient and sometimes distracting; it ‘gives mental health professionals permission to do everything but no speci

The surgeon general’s first-ever report on mental health, in 1999, proposed that stigma arises from “the misguided split between mind and body first proposed by Descartes.” At a press conference, the surgeon general announced that there is “no scientific justification for distinguishing between mental illness and other forms of illness.”

In physical medicine, pinpointing the disease process that has created the illness often gives clear direction to its treatment, but I did not perceive this relationship in the field we call mental illness.

This cognitive disorder rests on the illusion that the knowledge of the individual citizen is of less value than the “knowledge” of science. The former is the opinion of individuals. It is merely subjective and is excluded from policies. The latter is “objective”–defined by science and promulgated by expert spokesmen.