Drop the Disorder! A Book Review
Book Review: Drop the Disorder! Challenging the Culture of Psychiatric Diagnosis. Editor: Jo Watson. Foreword: Paula J. Caplan. Published by: PCCS Books, Ltd, UK in September, 2019.
The message of this book: Labeling people who are sufferingwith overwhelming emotional issues typically does not help them. Instead, a psychiatric diagnosis usuallyincreases suffering and stigma. “I’m a mentally ill person” is an identity that limits rather thanempowers. And, as increasingnumbers of people are encouraged to turn to psychiatric medications to managetheir emotions, normal human emotion is more often seen as symptomatic ofmental illness.
Drop the Disorder!
asks questions and offers reasoned answers:
- Q. Who is benefitting from the language of psychiatric diagnosis?
- A. Big Pharma and self-serving psychiatrists.
- Q. What do people who are suffering from extreme states really need to overcome their disturbance?
- A. New assessment tools: based on the kinds of trauma a person has experienced and its lasting effects. They also need more humane methods of eliciting recovery, e.g. counseling in which there is authentic, person to person, client-centered connection.
Why do we continue to label people who are sufferingemotionally? There is nobiological marker for mental disruption. Researchers have not found any biological causes—only the effects of mental disruption can be seenon brain imaging scans. Diagnosisis typically subjective then—depending on the perspectives of the healthcareprovider. And this person dependson their cultural bias, social and academic conditioning to decide who is notnormal. It’s a frail system, notbuilt on scientific principles—a pseudoscience.
This is a breakthrough book: straight from the heart and backed up by scholarly research and references. There are twenty chapters, written mostly by people with lived experience as well as experience counseling others. Authors include licensed psychologists. Each goes into the damaging effects of psychiatric labels as well as the manipulations of Big Pharma and poses viable alternatives. The bio-medical approach in which psychiatrists offer medications and rarely have any connection on a human level is shown as obsolete. Yes, this approach anesthetizes an individual to their upset; but it is not a tool of healing.
Endorsements
Of note: EleanorLongden, PhD, wrote that “’Drop the Disorder!’ is a truly innovative andvaluable book that functions both as a learning resource and an ardent call toarms.” Robert Whitaker,author of “Mad in America”, wrote “Upon close inspection…readers will see thatthe DSM is properly seen as a manual promoting what could fairly be called amedical ‘delusion’. As such, ‘Dropthe Disorder!’ provides a clarion call for change.”
Let’s get on with it!
Emma Bragdon, PhD is the Executive Director of Integrative Mental Health for You, IMHU.org
If you appreciate the message of this book review, pleasehave a look at some of the new courses at IMHU that shine a spotlight onrelated issues: