You might find some (or all) of the following quotes interesting:
Dr. Allen Frances (psychiatrist and founding editor of two well-known psychiatric journals): “Main thing we’ve learned from the history of psychiatry is that we learn nothing from it and keep making same mistakes:
- Recurrent diagnostic fads
- Neglecting the most impaired
- Overreacting the least impaired
- Funding too much ‘cool’ research and too little to really help people”
“Most psychiatric medications are purely symptomatic, with no known or proven effect on the underlying disease. They are like 50 variations of aspirin, used for fever or headache, rather than drugs that treat the causes of fever or headache,” Dr. Nassir Ghaemi (psychiatrist), Symptomatic versus disease-modifying effects of psychiatric drugs, Acta Scandinavica Psychiatrica.
The DSM is an absolute “scientific nightmare”, “A fools errand”, “wasted human capital and industry funds”. Steve Hyman, MD, former director of NIMH.
“… the most extensive studies so far have failed to find any significant genetic contribution to any single mental disorder.” Dr. Niall McLaren (psychiatrist), The Biocognitive Model for Biopsychosocial Psychiatry, Psychiatric Times.
“Ever since DSM-III was published, psychiatric researchers have been searching to identify biological causes for ADHD, and with that impulse in play, they have regularly misrepresented their own data. Very small group differences compared to controls are represented as abnormalities found in individuals diagnosed with ADHD, even though the study data, when properly parsed, show that not to be true.” Robert Whitaker (Medicating preschoolers for ADHD: Evidence-based psychiatry leads to tragic end (madinamerica.com)
“The confusion and barrenness of psychology is not to be explained by calling it a ‘young science’; its state is not comparable with that of physics, for instance, in its beginnings… For in psychology there are experimental methods and conceptual confusion… The existence of the experimental method makes us think we have the means of solving the problems which trouble us; though problem and method pass one another by” (Ludwig Wittgenstein, Philosophical Investigations, 1968, II xiv, 232e).
“Most psychiatric drugs have not been proven, in properly designed randomized trials, to improve the course of any illnesses they are purported to treat; specifically they have not been shown to prevent hospitalization or extend life, as many clinicians believe.” Dr. Nassir Ghaemi (psychiatrist), Symptomatic versus disease-modifying effects of psychiatric drugs, Acta Scandinavica Psychiatrica.
There are also seven additional groups of interesting quotes: here, here, here, here, here, here, and also here.
