LATimes: Psychiatric labels 'sick' Also: USA globalizes psych. labels

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Sun, 1 Jan 2006 21:46:13 -0800

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LATimes: Psychiatric labels 'sick' Also: USA globalizes

psych. labels

 

 

Today an _Los Angeles Times_ essay

copied BELOW blasts psychiatric labeling.

 

AT BOTTOM is news about the " Future of

Psychiatric Diagnosis. " Why is the Bush

administration funding secret meetings

about globalizing psychiatric labeling?

 

~~~~~~~~~~

 

1 January 2006

 

_Los Angeles Times_

 

Psychiatry's sick compulsion: turning

weaknesses into diseases

 

By Irwin Savodnik

 

[irwin Savodnik is a psychiatrist and

philosopher who teaches at UCLA.]

 

IT'S JAN. 1. Past time to get your

inoculation against seasonal affective

disorder, or SAD - at least according to

the American Psychiatric Assn. As

Americans rush to return Christmas junk,

bumping into each other in Macy's and

Best Buy, the psychiatric association

ponders its latest iteration of feeling

bad for the holidays. And what is the

association selling? Mental illness.

With its panoply of major depression,

dysthymic disorder, bipolar disorder and

generalized anxiety disorder, the

association is waving its Calvinist flag

to remind everyone that amid all the

celebration, all the festivities, all

the exuberance, many people will " come

down with " or " contract " or " develop "

some variation of depressive illness.

 

The association specializes in turning

ordinary human frailty into disease. In

the last year, ads have been appearing

in psychiatric journals about possible

treatments for shyness, a " syndrome " not

yet officially recognized as a disease.

You can bet it will be in the next

edition of the Diagnostic and

Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders,

or DSM-IV, published by the association.

As it turns out, the association has been

inventing mental illnesses for the last

50 years or so. The original diagnostic

manual appeared in 1952 and contained

107 diagnoses and 132 pages, by my

count. The second edition burst forth in

1968 with 180 diagnoses and 119 pages. In

1980, the association produced a 494-page

tome with 226 conditions. Then, in 1994,

the manual exploded to 886 pages and 365

conditions, representing a 340% increase

in the number of diseases over 42 years.

 

Nowhere in the rest of medicine has such

a proliferation of categories occurred.

The reason for this difference between

psychiatry and other medical specialties

has more to do with ideology than with

science. A brief peek at both areas

makes this point clear. All medicine

rests on the premise that disease is a

manifestation of diseased tissue.

Hepatitis comes down to an inflamed

liver, while lung tissue infiltrated

with pneumococcus causes pneumonia.

Every medical student learns this

principle. Where, though, is the

diseased tissue in psychopathological

conditions?

 

Unlike the rest of medicine, psychiatry

diagnoses behavior that society doesn't

like. Yesterday it was homosexuality.

Tomorrow it will be homophobia. Someone

who declares himself the messiah, who

insists that fluorescent lights talk to

him or declares that she's the Virgin

Mary, is an example of such behavior.

Such people are deemed - labeled, really

- sick by psychiatrists, and often they

are taken off to hospitals against their

will. The " diagnosis " of such

" pathological behavior " is based on

social, political or aesthetic values.

 

This is confusing. Behavior cannot be

pathological (or healthy, for that

matter). It can simply comport with, or

not comport with, our nonmedical

expectations of how people should

behave. Analogously, brains that produce

weird or obnoxious behaviors are not

diseased. They are brains that produce

atypical behaviors (which could include

such eccentricities as dyed hair or

multiple piercings or tattoos that

nobody in their right mind could find

attractive).

 

Lest one think that such a view is the

rant of a Scientologist, it is no such

thing. Scientology offers polemic to

lull the faithful into belief. Doctors

and philosophers offer argument to

provoke debate.

 

It's a natural step from using social

and political standards to create a

psychiatric diagnosis to using them to

influence public policy. Historically,

that influence has appeared most

dramatically in the insanity defense.

Remember Dan White, the man who murdered

San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and

Supervisor Harvey Milk in 1978? Or John

Hinckley, who shot President Reagan in

1981? Or Mark David Chapman, who killed

John Lennon? White, whose psychiatrist

came up with the " Twinkie defense " - the

high sugar content of White's favorite

junk food may have fueled his murderous

impulses - was convicted and paroled

after serving five years, only to commit

suicide a year later.

 

The erosion of personal responsibility

is, arguably, the most pernicious effect

of the expansive role psychiatry has come

to play in American life. It has

successfully replaced huge chunks of

individual accountability with

diagnoses, clinical histories and what

turn out to be pseudoscientific

explanations for deviant behavior.

 

Pathology has replaced morality.

Treatment has supplanted punishment.

Imprisonment is now hospitalization.

From the moral self-castigation we find

in the writings of John Adams, we have

been drawn to Woody Allen-style

neuroses. Were the psychiatric

association to scrutinize itself more

deeply and reconsider its expansionist

diagnostic programs, it would,

hopefully, make a positive contribution

to our culture by not turning the good

and bad into the healthy and the sick.

 

The last thing the United States needs

is more self-indulgent,

pseudo-insightful, overly self-conscious

babble about people who can't help

themselves. Better, as Voltaire would

put it, to cultivate our gardens and be

accountable for who and what we are.

 

- end of _LA Times_ essay -

 

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/sunday/editorials/la-op-

psych1jan01,0,1868753.story?coll=la-home-sunday-opinion

 

Or use this smaller url:

 

http://tinyurl.com/dt5mu

 

Letters to editor: letters

 

~~~~~~~~~~

 

IN OTHER NEWS about psychiatric diagnosis...

 

GLOBALIZATION OF PSYCHIATRIC LABELING

 

by David Oaks, Director

MindFreedom International

 

The USA government is helping to fund a

series of private conferences throughout

the world with the American Psychiatric

Association (APA) about the " Future

of Psychiatric Diagnosis. "

 

The Bush Administration provided the

APA with $1.1 million for the meetings.

 

But guess who is not invited?

 

One stated goal of this series of invite-only

conferences is " to promote international

collaboration in order to increase the likelihood

of developing a future unified DSM/ICD. "

 

DSM is the APA's psychiatric label book; ICD

is the disease classification system used

internationally.

 

In other words, these meetings are about the

USA and the APA influencing a global system

of classifying psychiatric disorders.

 

These closed-door meetings may impact the

lives of some 450 million people all over the

globe who the World Health Organization

estimates qualify for a mental disorder label

at any given time.

 

Unfortunately, those potentially impacted do

not have a voice -- or even much information

-- about these meetings.

 

Dr. Darrel Regier, Executive Director of the

American Psychiatric Institute for Research and

Education (APIRE) is in charge of the process.

 

APIRE is a research arm of the APA, and

receives a large amount of the funding that the

psychiatric drug industry gives the APA.

 

MindFreedom has written to Dr. Regier

three times in four months about the need to

include the voices of organized groups

representing those affected by psychiatric

diagnoses.

 

Dr. Regier has not replied.

 

Since Dr. Regier is counting on the World

Health Organization to adopt his proposals,

then WHO may be another place to raise

concerns about this process.

 

Dr. Regier is apparently trying to show the

USA is sensitive to international involvement.

The co-chairs of each meeting pair up a USA

psychiatric leader with a non-USA leader.

 

Dr. Regier's next event is in Washington, D.C.,

15 - 17 February 2006 on the topic of

" Deconstructing Psychosis. "

 

The co-chairs will be Drs. Carol Tamminga

of Texas and Jim van Os of Netherlands.

 

Dr. Tamminga e-mailed to MindFreedom

on 31 December 2005 that all inquiries

ought to go to Dr. Regier who is

" administering and directing this effort. "

 

For what little information there is on these

" Future of Psychiatric Diagnosis " events see

the APA's web site:

 

http://www.dsm5.org/planning.cfm

 

This APA web site also has information

about their plans to create the new DSM-5:

 

http://www.dsm5.org/

 

To download an APA pdf of a 2004 APIRE

newsletter announcing their DSM Research

Planning,

 

www.psych.org/research/dor/prr/PRR-WINTER-2004.final.pdf

 

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ACTIONS! ** ACTIONS! ** ACTIONS!

 

** HELP INFORM those who may be impacted

by these labels! Please copy and forward

this alert to all appropriate places on

and off the Internet.

 

** ASK THAT the World Health Organization

file a complaint about the closed meetings

funded by the Bush Administration.

 

E-mail to: info

 

Sample message: " I object to the way the

USA, the APA, and Dr. Daniel Regier of

APIRE are trying to misuse the WHO by

holding closed-door meetings to

globalize psychiatric labeling. "

 

[include your name & address]

 

~~~~~~~~~~

 

This above news alert is forwarded as a free

public service by the nonprofit human rights

organization MindFreedom International.

 

* Win human rights campaigns in mental health.

* End abuse by the psychiatric drug industry.

* Support the voices of psychiatric survivors.

* Promote safe and humane options in mental health.

 

MindFreedom International unites 100 sponsor

and affiliate groups with individual members,

and is accredited by the United Nations as

a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) with

Consultative Roster Status.

 

MindFreedom is one of the very few totally

independent groups in the mental health

field with no funding from governments,

drug companies, religions, corporations,

or the mental health system.

 

JOIN, DONATE, or give GIFT MEMBERSHIPS

to MindFreedom International today:

 

http://www.mindfreedom.org/join.shtml

 

CAN YOU HAVE FUN WITH PSYCHIATRIC LABELS?

 

JUST IN: Refrigerator magnets let you

invent hilarious new psychiatric labels!

For a MAD MARKET of these and other

products to support human rights campaigns

in mental health: http://www.madmarket.org

 

MindFreedom International

454 Willamette, Suite 216 - POB 11284

Eugene, OR 97440-3484 USA

 

http://www.mindfreedom.org

email: office at mindfreedom.org fax: (541) 345-3737

office phone: (541) 345-9106

USA toll free: 1-877-MAD-PRIDE / 1-877-623-7743

 

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Please forward this to all appropriate

places on and off the Internet. Thank you!

 

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