PSYCHIATRY A Very Short Introduction
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loginThe current preference is for emphasizing that psychiatry is ‘justanother branch of medicine’ like cardiology or oncology. In part thisis to try and make psychiatry properly respectable by highlightingits scientific credentials, its commitment to precise diagnoses andevidence-based treatments, increasing its status within medicineand in society generally. It is also to reduce the stigma which hasalways been associated with mental illnesses. Stressing that theseare illnesses like any other illness (‘mental illnesses are braindiseases’) should reduce prejudice experienced by sufferers and thesense of responsibility and shame felt by so many patients andfamilies. We don’t feel ashamed or blame ourselves if a familymember develops arthritis, so why do we if they become depressed?It is against this backdrop of unnecessary additional suffering thatthe medical legitimacy of psychiatry is, quite rightly, stressed.
