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Dr. Barbara Oakley continues to threaten the Holy Narrative. "Phenomics—the Phinal Phrontier (Part 1)" introduces an interesting series that could, I speculate, do for psychologists what O'Keefe and Giles did for ACORN. OK, so the psychologists aren't ACORN, and the article is far less dramatic. Well worth your time, though:
Bob Bilder and his group are doing the unthinkable. They are boldly pointing out that not only is the current system of psychiatric diagnoses inaccurate, unreliable, and subjective—-it actually prevents the research necessary to understand the basic causes and treatments of mental illness. In fact, trying to research personality-related syndromes and dysfunction using the officially recognized DSM diagnostic categories is a major reason why the era of personalized medicine—that is, the ability to use a person’s genetics to tell which therapies might be most effective—still seems so far in the future.
Homosexuality used to be in the DSM as a type of neurosis, until the APA voted to de-list it, at the insistence of a group of homosexual psychologists/psychiatrists. Nowadays, anybody with a same-sex attraction who doesn't want to be "that way," is shamed into coming out of the closet.
ReplyDeleteIt reminds me of the joke about the man who tells the shrink that his wife suffers from the delusion that she's a chicken. "Why don't you bring her to us for treatment?" asks the shrink. The hubby replies, "I'd like to, but we need the eggs."