Killer Mike

I was watching a news clip showing an interview with Tom Cruise. He was babling on about some nonsense that psychiatry is pseudoscience!! That people dont chemical imbalances and anti-depression drugs are not necessary. Obviously he has been brainwashed by the Scientology Cult which has much to gain by convincing people not to go see a licenced psychiatrist but rather go to a scientology church and get your engrams cleared. :Cheeky: I could see the Church of Scientology acting like these silly creationists when it comes to evolution. In High School I had to take psychology. Perhaps some day we will see Scientologists attacking the behavorial sciences in the same way. Trying to get their brand of mental health equal time, or trying to get some time for "controversies in psychology" to be included in High School psychology classes.

Anyway I could not help but think of the analogy of how creationists approach evolution the same way Scientologists approach psychiatry.

infinity

except of course for the little fact that, while extreme, their views are more or less accurate.

there 3 distinct types of psychology:
1. practical
2. academic
3. pharmaceutical

practical psychology is simple observing the way people tend to act, drawing conclusions from the patterns, and applying that to how you interact with people.
academic is this freudian bullshit and sociology about how everyone wants to sleep with their mother and individuality is a delusional in the face of consumer pop culture.
pharmaceutical states anyone who isn't blissfully happy has a chemical disorder and needs to alter the way their brain works.

frankly, i tend to agree with scientologists on the issue of clinical and professional psychiatry... it's overused, overdiagnoses, and most important: it's not necessary.
people have been getting along just fine for thousands of years before the invention of zoloft and freudian psychology. people can, even now, get along just fine without it. it's not necessary to explain human mental attitudes, or to deal with emotional trauma.
if it's not necessary, it's not vital. and if it's not vital, it's not absolute

Hitetlen

Important point: Psychology and psychiatry are NOT the same. Psychiatrists are actual doctors, psychologists are not. Anyone can become a psychology quack by finishing a correspondence course.

trendkill

I trust psychiatry more than scientology. Which isn't saying much. Fun fact about antidepressants: nobody knows how they work. There is no real scientific explanation as to why they help some people and apparently cause others to commit suicide. The "chemical imbalance" stuff is essentially conjecture. They certainly don't know why some antidepressants work on some people and not on others.

infinity

psychiatry is nothing more than the commercial arm of psychology...
the only people in the world i hate more than psychiatrists are probably sociologists

engly-saxo

I'm not a scientologist, but Tom Crusie has a point, IMO!

Psychiatry has many flaws that are unique, in regards to the differing branches of medicine in in existence.

Does mental illness really have a biological or physiological cause? Not all mental illnesses do, or at least are not proven to have one. Depression may, but what about anti-social personality disorder? Or paranoid personality disorder? Or Munchausen syndrome?

Also, how is mental illness defined exactly? Is it not adhering to social norms? Or statistical norms? So in that sense, goths today are mentally ill, as were hippies in the sixties and beatniks in the 1950's.

Is it experiencing hallucinations? What exactly?

Nice Squirrel

Moving to S&S....

Matt the Medic

(nevermind)

dang squirrels and their tiny fast fingers...

God Fearing Atheist

One would think that SSRIs (for example) work by, uh, inhibiting 5-HT reuptake?

infinity

which does... what exactly?
why does it make some people happy... some people numb... and some commit suicide?
what exactly is the precise chemical reaction and end result on the psyche that this reuptake effects?
answer: we don't have a god damn clue