Comments on: Is Russia entering another dark age of psychiatry? http://mindhacks.com/2007/08/30/is-russia-entering-another-dark-age-of-psychiatry/ Neuroscience and psychology news and views. Mon, 20 May 2013 15:51:40 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: Vitaliy http://mindhacks.com/2007/08/30/is-russia-entering-another-dark-age-of-psychiatry/#comment-28765 Mon, 11 Jun 2012 12:34:00 +0000 http://mindhacksblog.wordpress.com/2007/08/30/is-russia-entering-another-dark-age-of-psychiatry/#comment-28765 P.S. vaughanbell wrote that he emailed President of Russian Society of Psychiatrists but received no response – unfortunately, it’s typical for post-Soviet countries.

]]> By: Vitaliy http://mindhacks.com/2007/08/30/is-russia-entering-another-dark-age-of-psychiatry/#comment-28764 Mon, 11 Jun 2012 12:30:27 +0000 http://mindhacksblog.wordpress.com/2007/08/30/is-russia-entering-another-dark-age-of-psychiatry/#comment-28764 Thanks for post.

Ukraine, former member of USSR, has similar problems.

I went to a psychiatrist, said that I think I have depresion, I had a chat with doctor.

Doctor tried to use a momental (direct) hypnosis without knowing my diagnoses. That’s unlawful and could made harm. Then he said “F..k you!” I was shocked. That’s the psychiatry!

]]> By: Larry Smith http://mindhacks.com/2007/08/30/is-russia-entering-another-dark-age-of-psychiatry/#comment-7148 Mon, 18 Feb 2008 07:35:32 +0000 http://mindhacksblog.wordpress.com/2007/08/30/is-russia-entering-another-dark-age-of-psychiatry/#comment-7148 The trouble with psychiatry is that definitions of mental illness, even in the US, are generated by experts and purely behavioral. It is very easy to subvert this kind of process for political, social and financial purposes.
The story of homosexuality in the DSM is a prime example of this process at work. Since there is a bias of assuming mind=computer here, I’ll recall that Alan Turing was deemed a security risk and forcibly treated for his homosexuality with estrogen injections. He took his life shortly thereafter.
Kutchins and Kirk provide further topics of controversy regarding the process of deciding diagnostic criteria in their book “Making Us Crazy”. (The book is far less inflammatory than the title suggests.)
An philosophical analysis of the current classification system and the difficulties in producing a valid one, are discussed by Rachel Cooper in her book “Classifying Madness”. Philosophical should not be
read as speculative in the previous sentence. The book is a valid exercise in applied philosophy of science.
Given the vulnerability to manipulation, it should not come as a surprise the the Soviets came up with sluggishly-progressing schizophrenia as diagnosis for political dissidents. Or that the PRC still has its own manual of mental disorders (CCMD-3), which include a disorder attributed to the practice of Qigong, and conveniently used to label Falun Gong practitioners are mentally ill. Whether Qigong has any merits I won’t debate here, but suffice to say that any religious beliefs qualify as delusion, thus phychosis, if the cultural aspect is ignored. Freud for instance did not consider the exception
valid. A discussion is provided by Pierre JM in “Faith or delusion? At the crossroads of religion and psychosis.” (PMID: 15990520)
A more recent controversy is that of childhood bipolar disorder. Not yet in the DSM, but given enough political pressure from the right groups, I’ll eat my socks it will be in the next edition.

]]> By: humble.life http://mindhacks.com/2007/08/30/is-russia-entering-another-dark-age-of-psychiatry/#comment-7147 Fri, 31 Aug 2007 06:35:29 +0000 http://mindhacksblog.wordpress.com/2007/08/30/is-russia-entering-another-dark-age-of-psychiatry/#comment-7147 I can’t help feeling that most psychiatry is like this anyway for anyone in pretty much any country…

]]> By: CopperKettle http://mindhacks.com/2007/08/30/is-russia-entering-another-dark-age-of-psychiatry/#comment-7146 Fri, 31 Aug 2007 02:53:56 +0000 http://mindhacksblog.wordpress.com/2007/08/30/is-russia-entering-another-dark-age-of-psychiatry/#comment-7146 Thank you for giving more publicity to this story, Vaughan.

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