Extract from Robert Whitaker & Lisa Cosgrove's 'Psychiatry Under the Influence'
“As Kriss observed in his article [in which he reviews the diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (DSM) as if it were a work of fiction], the DSM locates problems within the biology of the individual. This, in turn, is an understanding that encourages society to ignore social factors that may create mental difficulties for so many.
If depression, anxiety, and other psychiatric symptoms arise from neurotransmitters that are out of whack, then society–much like the individual patient–is not prompted to consider the social context for the distress.
Perhaps the best example of this is how foster children are regularly treated today. Such children can be understood to have drawn the short straw in the lottery of life, born into a dysfunctional family situation, where abuse of many kinds may be rampant. Yet, such children today often diagnosed with a mental disorder. Society is no longer prompted to ask what happened to the child; instead, a diagnosis is made to designate what is wrong with the child. The child is informed that he or she is broken and “mentally ill.” Medication is offered as the solution, and this is so even though the medication may squelch the child's emotions and capacity to interact with the world. More disadvantages are heaped on the child, and all the while, society sees no need to create a nurturing environment for the child, one that would encourage the child to develop a new internal narrative of how he or she is capable of loving and being loved.
In this way, the disease model encourages society to turn a blind eye to the social injustices that may cause mental distress to so many. If anxiety, depression, or aggressive behaviours are due to a chemical imbalance, or a brain illness of some kind, then questions about lousy schools, poor wages, poverty, racism, and crime-filled neighbourhoods can be dismissed.
If a school doesn't set aside time for gym, art or music, and the child gets antsy sitting in a chair all day, then that is the child's fault, and not the fault of a society that would create such a child-unfriendly school day. The DSM, all too often, breeds societal hard-heartedness toward those who are suffering because of reasons related to social injustices, and mitigates the impulse for creating a more just society.”
~Robert Whitaker & Lisa Cosgrove's 'Psychiatry Under the Influence'
If depression, anxiety, and other psychiatric symptoms arise from neurotransmitters that are out of whack, then society–much like the individual patient–is not prompted to consider the social context for the distress.
Perhaps the best example of this is how foster children are regularly treated today. Such children can be understood to have drawn the short straw in the lottery of life, born into a dysfunctional family situation, where abuse of many kinds may be rampant. Yet, such children today often diagnosed with a mental disorder. Society is no longer prompted to ask what happened to the child; instead, a diagnosis is made to designate what is wrong with the child. The child is informed that he or she is broken and “mentally ill.” Medication is offered as the solution, and this is so even though the medication may squelch the child's emotions and capacity to interact with the world. More disadvantages are heaped on the child, and all the while, society sees no need to create a nurturing environment for the child, one that would encourage the child to develop a new internal narrative of how he or she is capable of loving and being loved.
In this way, the disease model encourages society to turn a blind eye to the social injustices that may cause mental distress to so many. If anxiety, depression, or aggressive behaviours are due to a chemical imbalance, or a brain illness of some kind, then questions about lousy schools, poor wages, poverty, racism, and crime-filled neighbourhoods can be dismissed.
If a school doesn't set aside time for gym, art or music, and the child gets antsy sitting in a chair all day, then that is the child's fault, and not the fault of a society that would create such a child-unfriendly school day. The DSM, all too often, breeds societal hard-heartedness toward those who are suffering because of reasons related to social injustices, and mitigates the impulse for creating a more just society.”
~Robert Whitaker & Lisa Cosgrove's 'Psychiatry Under the Influence'
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