Psychiatry - Biggest Sham Ever?

I've been doing some thinking and it seems to me that psychology, and psychiatry are two of the biggest shams to ever be invented. First off, they define that something is a disease based on societal standards, not medical standards. I have trouble understanding why being sad is now a disease. People have been sad since the beginning of time. However, nowadays, instead of actually dealing with why we are sad we take medications. And then we wonder why we are still sad with the medications. So we take some more, and more. Also, I have trouble understanding why thinking differently is now considered a disease. Why do we expect everyone to think exactly the same? Dosen't society progress through the influx of new ways of thinking and new ideas?

Also, Why do we immediately disqualify those who think they hear voices or see things while at the same time we believe that chanting words over and over again will bring us eternal salvation? In my opinion they are both equally crazy. One is just sanctioned by society.

In the end it seems that anyone who dosen't follow society to the letter gets labled mentally ill. How come more and more people are mentally ill? How come we label those who are eccentric as mentally ill. The greatest people of time including albert einstein, picasso, etc... would all be considered mentally ill by today's standards. It almost seems that the whole idea of mental illness is a construct used to prevent society from changing naturally. It allows the influential to determine the course of society by controlling how people think and who's allowed to have an opinion.

At the same time, I'm not saying that things like Manic Depression don't exist. I just think that they are fundamentally societal in nature and occur when one dose not naturally conform to societies ways of thinking. Any thoughts on this?

 

A daunting fact is that many people give their power away the minute they walk through their Dr's door.

 

I know that, like many other types of studies, psychology and psychiatry can be used as a band aid, and ultimately contribute to problems... but I know that it can also help. Have you ever personally known someone who successfully overcame some form of depression or personality disorder with the help of medicine and therapy? I have, so I believe there is something good about it.

Popular psychology is something to keep an eye on,, nonetheless, as it can be used as an easy tool to shape socity, just as society tends to shape it. For instance, as it became more accepted in society, homosexuality was taken out of the list of disorders in the early 70's. Now that the public is more open minded to gender studies, Gender Identity Disprder is begining to come under fire as dicrimination against transgendered people. So, sometimes, the powers balance, other times, when the masses are unwilling to accept a few hard truths, people decide to take happy pills.

 

I guess my objection to psychology is that it claims to help people who are going through difficult times. However, in a lot of those cases the reason the person is feeling bad is because they've been told that what they're feeling is wrong. So they don't feel accepted and of course they feel bad. Rather than the person, it is society to blame. It could be argued that if society was more accepting of different types of thinking than they wouldn't feel so bad about thinking that way to begin with.

 

Psychology doesnt help people, that's psychiatry. psychology is merely the study of the psyche.

 

Actually psychology does help people lots of people and it is not just the study of the psyche. It is more that just a what society thinks is normal. It is based in fact and research and science. Maybe before you talk about a subject you should learn a little about it first. It may help you be better prepared for a discussion.

 

Well I mean that in the sense that a psychologist isn't going to sit down with someone suffering from mania and do the therapy themselves. It's the psychiatrist that works with people directly.

I know plenty about the subject at hand, please don't make assumptions.

 

You've got to classify states of mind in SOME way. Just because everything is natural and par the course, does not mean that we shouldn't find the root of dimentia or any other mental state.

We have other branches of science devoted to finding out WHY society views these "illnesses" as such. I wouldn't blame the psychologists themselves. How about you suggest an alternate way to classify these things so that their poor feelings dont get hurt :[ :[[[[[[

 

Actually psychologists do sit and do one on one therapy. Psychiatrist prescribe pills with out addressing the deeper issues.

There are also different fields within psychology that deal with different issues.

There is clinical psychology. It is what most people think of when the term psychologist is used. They are the ones that sit list and talk to clients to help deal with problems. Behavioral psychologist and social psychologist also do this.

There are social psychologist, neural psychology, environmental psychology, educational psychology and behavioral psychology. With in each of these fields that are sub fields that deal with very specific things.

Most people who haven't studied psychology don't really understand what it is about.

 

There are also industrial psychologists, dont forget those!

 

yes those too

 

Yeah its a study of the human mind, and it's not like biology where you can poke, prod, and study a phsyical thing. So we ought to give psychiatry some curve in comparison to other sciences because it deals with something more intangible.

Also, when a psychiatrist gives you pills for things such as depression, (at least as far as I know), they do so in unison with ongoing therapy. My psychiatrist wouldn't prescribe me lexapro without me committing to my weekly therapy.

About conformity such as religion, ever notice how these people have the least problems in comparison to those that do not conform?

My brother (a 27y/o hippy), ruined his credit, dropped out, is now doing odd jobs to get by, and spends his time ranting against the establishment, spinning conspiracy theories and putting my dreams down. Mainly he tells me how I am never going to be able to become a lawyer because the system will put me down.

Maybe he is right, but if I don't conform, I will NEVER ever have the chance at it. Furthermore, he has friends, but they are all hippies (Azn ones), and he has no intellectual friends. All he does is do drugs and get drunk. There are many like him, and although he will refuse to believe it, he has problems and needs therapy simply because he isn't having much success (from society's view of money and power).
My point in all that, is that I was exactly the same way as him in high school, but I realize that not conforming brings more problems than conforming to society. After all we live in society, why go underground when you can participate in the fruits that society offers.
Seems to me like those that can't find it in themselves to conform, trash the system simply because they want to slam something that is succeeding without their participation.

My three cents... = )

 

When my gynecologist found a lump in my breast, she immediately prescribed Prozac to me, in her words "just in case", and it was an on-going prescription. I was never asked to return for "weekly therapy". There are so many irresponsible Doctors that give out antidepressants like candy, and they are not all psychiatrist.

 

Hey John, lets be careful what you and I say since we had disaster on a previous thread lol

This system is completely out of balance. Your brother talks about "the man" holding him down, and he is right but he isn't able to convey the correct message in his stoned out state of mind.

Alot of it has to do with where do you live? A quiet suburb or a rich gated community or a city filled with dead bodies in the street from the gang wars.

Young people are slamming something that is successful because if you look at the successful system or the "machine", a few smart guys are in the luxurious cockpit, while we peasants are pulling it along with ropes with all the life we have in us. That's injustice not a fair system.

I don't know where you live why you think kids should stop crying about the system and just conform, but this is where I live:


Louisiana

LA 50TH in per capita income
LA 50TH in livability.
LA 50TH in competitiveness
LA 4th Highest Rate of Adult Obesity
LA 49TH in child well-being
LA 50TH in health
LA 1ST in wasting Medicare dollars
LA 2ND in rate of men killing women
LA 48TH in places to die
LA 49TH in women's health
LA 2ND in rate of healthcare uninsureds
LA is the 2ND most dangerous state in which to live
LA 3RD in the rate of corruption
LA 1ST in gonorrhea rate
LA 49TH in social health
LA 1ST in high school dropout rate
LA public schools are 4TH worst
LA 2ND cost of Homeowner's Insurance
LA 1ST in Southeast in population exodus
LA 1ST in rate of incarceration
LA 1ST in number of child living in poverty
LA 1ST in net population loss
LA 48TH in educational attainment of the population 25 years and over
LA 1ST in number of women living in poverty
LA LAST in bond ratings
LA LAST in healthcare for seniors
LA 1ST in abandoning public schools
LA 1ST in "Out-migration"
LA 2ND in DWI fatalities
LA 46TH in Integrity
LA is the 49TH "smartest state"
LA WORST for healthcare for the elderly and disabled
LA LAST in wealth of our citizens
LA's economy 49th out of 50
LA roads 2ND WORST in the nation.
LA is ONLY southern state to lose population
LA LAST in cash for research
LA 1ST in teen use of steroids
LA 1ST in the percentage of income used to pay rent
LA 2ND in rate of poverty


^^^^^^ I don't call that a successful system.


I see the real world down here in the south.

Here is a good read I borrowed from Pressed_Ratt



When I Woke Up!
When I finally woke up I took a look around. I saw city halls, courthouses, houses of government, churches, schools, and universities by the hundreds and thousands. I saw systems... systems for managing the land, the air, and the water; systems for managing human behavior; systems for managing religion; systems for managing learning; systems for managing food, shelter, clothing; systems for managing love and procreation: a vast complex of carefully engineered systems. I saw millions of people working, not for themselves, but for someone else. I saw millions of people doing, not what they themselves want to do, but what someone else wants them to do. I saw the depressing evidence of a people who have externalized and institutionalized-in fact, have tried to standardize-the very nature of humanity.
I saw a whole people who've lost the way of life and in its place have built a technological monster which does most of their hard work, carries their water, delivers their food, raises their kids, makes their decisions, says their prayers, transports them, informs them, entertains them, and controls the people it serves, absolutely. I also saw that the monster, seemingly unable to manage itself, was running wild, totally out of visible control, ripping the land to pieces, spreading poisons, filling the air with filth, dumping garbage and shit in the rivers and lakes and oceans. I saw all that, and I saw the people, millions of them, crowded together in cities, living side by side in towns, villages, rural areas. But I didn't see a single community.
Is someone doing all of this on purpose? Yes!


Yeh I want to conform to this system real soon..........

 

Awesome post Synthesis!!!!

 

Thats why I believe that general MD's should not be allowed to prescribe psycho pharmaceuticals.

 

I appreciate that post synthesis, I appreciate it even more so because your tone was so appropriate I can't help but commend your virtues. But without delving too deep into compliments and what I hope doesn't sound like flattery, let me clarify the message that I am trying to convey.

First off, it is no secret that Americans use perscription drugs like candy. Notice the underground drug trade doesn't sell only weed and coke, it sells sticks (Xanax), and Vicodin which are just as popular if not more popular than the former. That still shouldn't take away from the fact that these medicines do help people who actually have problems and which the drugs are specifically designed to help them.

Secondly, I am not an economist, and because my knowledge is quite limited in this vast field, I cannot vouch myself as even a beginner, much less an expert. But I do know a thing or two about history and here's my view.
300,000,000 people live in one place. They need to be fed, they need to be clothed, they need jobs, they need places to live. On top of this they need to be organized so they can work efficiently and so resources aren't wasted. The best system in the world that has made our lives more fair than others, more free than others, and increased our well-beings as compared to other ways of life, is American capitalism. Corporations, all that good stuff.

I believe the capitalism needs reform. I believe that socialistist aspects may aid in this reform, but I do not belive in socialism or communism, communalism or anything else. I believe in capitalism because it is better than others because history has shown it. I work for people, but I make my own money. I can save my money and enter capitalist avenues for increasing my money. If I had the right skills, and the right amount of knowledge, I can gain financial success in the American capitalism and rise up the social ladder. I can have people work for me one day, and lord knows I would treat them well. But is economic feasability, the dynamics of having people work for you, will this dynamic allow me to treat my workers really well? Thus read my questions below.
My questions to you are: If there is a better system than capitalism, how come revolution after revolution we still come back to the same format? People on the bottom, people in the middle, people on top. Couldn't it be possible that from what we know of economics, there is no other way? That is until we find another way?
(And please don't answer the first question, "because that's how 'they' want it to come back to. I feel you are far more intelligent than that)

And btw, I live in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, NY. Not exactly paradise =P

 

*sighs*

 

I couldn't agree with you more.

 

Oh comeon, you gotta be kidding me synthesis. Don't just sit there and sigh, school me. I know I'm all over the place, start with one thing, and maybe you can change a young mind.