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Bob Johnson
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DOI:10.17265/2159-5313/2021.11.001
PHILOSOPHY and PSYCHIATRY are unusual bedfellows. Medical students, already hard pressed for time, are generally thrust into the melee of mental disorders, having spent years focussing on first dissecting and then prodding human bodies, which too often leaves little room for evaluating theories about human nature, especially with respect to “Intent” or Free Will. The present writer was unusual in that having spent two years in pre-clinical medical training, he devoted a full university year to pursuing philosophical studies in up to 20 different university departments. Thus he entered his teaching hospital with a working knowledge of Hume, Kant, Sartre, Wittgenstein, Buber and others.
This is not a clinical paper—it focuses on the reasoning behind psychiatric precepts—so it is perhaps inevitable that today’s prevailing ideology is shown to be grievously wanting—a case of decidedly unphilosophical, even anti-philosophical, medical practice. The notion of there ever being a “scientific” theory of psychiatry has already been discounted in a series of earlier papers—which leaves us with the responsibility for choosing the best possible option, from an infinite number of theoretical models available.
The paper provides a whistle-stop tour of how mental disease looks if you start with a confident and consistent look at that pinnacle of human attributes—consciousness. It doesn’t presume to say what consciousness is, but it does assume that it has a function, like every other human asset. Indeed by cutting corners, evaluating what has worked over 60 years in psychiatry, the result is as straightforward a picture of sanity as one can reasonably expect. As such, it leaves the reader with little wriggle room—there is enough clarity here, for you to accept or reject the main proposition. However, since the flaws described tend to be lethal, acceptance entails action. Now read on.
the link between consciousness and sanity, the link between consciousness and insanity, the therapeutic importance of smiles, psychosocial dwarfism of the mind, the need for urgent action to combat DSM-psychiatry
Bob Johnson. (2021). Psychiatry Is Bereft—It Lacks a Workable Philosophy for Consciousness—Herewith a Three Pronged Escape Plan. Philosophy Study, November 2021, Vol. 11, No. 11, 797-809.
Breggin, P. (Author), & Rowe, D. (Foreword). (1993). Toxic psychiatry. Drugs and electroconvulsive therapy: The truth and the better alternatives: Why therapy, empathy and love must replace the drugs. New York: HarperCollins.
DSM-I. (1952). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (1st ed.). Washington DC: American Psychiatric Association.
DSM-II. (1968). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (2nd ed.). Washington DC: American Psychiatric Association.
DSM-III. (1980). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (3rd ed.). Washington DC: American Psychiatric Association.
DSM-IV. (1994). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (4th ed.). Washington DC: American Psychiatric Association.
DSM-V. (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed.). Washington DC: American Psychiatric Association.
The Economist. (2013). DSM-5 by the Book. New York. Accessed May 18th 2013. https://www.economist.com/news/science-and-technology/21578024-american-psychiatric-associations-latest-diagnostic-manual-remains-flawed
Harrow, M., Jobe, T. H., & Faull, R. N. (2014). Does treatment of schizophrenia with antipsychotic medications eliminate or reduce psychosis? A 20-year multi-follow-up study. Psychological Medicine, 44(14), 3007-3016.
Johnson, B. (2018). How verbal physiotherapy works, using social delight to defeat social harm, for all. Retrieved from https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/892956
Johnson, B. (2021a). Why dysfunctional medical flaws have cramped psychiatrists since 1980. Journal of US-China Medical Science, 18, 99-105. doi:10.17265/1548-6648/2021.03.001
Johnson, B. (2021b). The simple science of psychiatry, psychodrugs and of WAR—Friendless childhoods foment warring adults. Philosophy Study, 11(8), 577-599. doi: 10.17265/2159-5313/2021.08.001. http://www.davidpublisher.com/Public/uploads/Contribute/611a6424395e0.pdf
and see https://drbobjohnson.substack.com/p/all-crime-and-all-psychiatry-come?justPublished=true
Nordstrom, P., Nordstrom, A., Eriksson, M., Wahlund, L., & Gustafson, Y. (2013). Risk factors in late adolescence for young-onset dementia in men, a nationwide cohort study. JAMA Intern. Med., 173(17), 1612-1618. doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2013.9079
Rogol, A. D. (2020). Emotional deprivation in children: Growth faltering and reversible hypopituitarism. Frontiers in Endocrinology. doi: 10.3389/fendo.2020.596144
Ourworldindata. (2017). https://ourworldindata.org/suicide
Whitaker, R., & Cosgrove, L. (Contributor). (2015). Psychiatry under the influence: Institutional corruption, social injury, and prescriptions for reform. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Wield, C. (2021). Labels that stick. Mad in the UK. https://www.madintheuk.com/2021/11/labels-that-stick/ And at https://www.cathywield.com/about