Posted by alexandra_k on November 4, 2004, at 2:43:04
In reply to Psychiatry should be replaced with neurology, posted by Squiggles on November 3, 2004, at 15:41:33
People worry a bit about whether psychiatry is a real science (just like physics, or more plausibly medicine) that deals with discrete and valid disorders. It is true that there is still so much that we don't know, but then people with epilepsy used to get it much harder too. I mean, epileptic fits used to be mistaken for demonic possession, and there is stuff about TLE personality. Most people would agree that mental disorder does have a neurological basis, but discovering the precise nature of that is pretty hard.
I reckon the trouble comes from the message that it is a disorder of the mind or of thinking, and thus if you could change the way you think then you'd be ok. While there is clearly something to this telling someone this isn't the best way of showing them how to do this. And who knows whether it is thinking negatively that leads to depression, or whether it is depression that leads to negative thinking at any rate.
poster:alexandra_k
thread:411422
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20041026/msgs/411436.html