PSYCHIATRY:
An experimental ideology without validation
Validation is the confirmation of a hypothesis by examining whether it is based on a sound foundation for quality, completeness, and reliability. Simply put, it is the act of affirming something as true or correct. Did you know that validation is lacking in many medical and virtually all psychiatric treatments? Psychiatry is a vast maze of unproven propositions and assumptions on which drug treatments and psycho- and behavioral therapies are based.
The ‘chemical imbalance in the brain’ doesn’t exist at all
Despite its many scientific-looking articles, very little has been proven within psychiatry. For example, take the theory of ‘chemical imbalance in the brain’ that psychiatrists widely proclaimed from the late 1980s to the present. It states that depression is related to a deficiency of the neurotransmitter serotonin in the brain. Although the hypothesis was never proven, in those forty years since few questioned it.
For the pharmaceutical industry, the big driver (read: financial backer) behind the promotion of this theory, it was a gold mine, because the idea of a ‘chemically unbalanced brain’ sold its products, the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), like hot cakes. SSRIs are drugs that are said to restore the chemical imbalance of serotonin in the brain. Doctors and patients asked no questions and these antidepressants were widely dispensed. In England, for example, one in six adults and 2% of teenagers are now being prescribed an antidepressant in a given year. The marketing of SSRIs turned out to be all hot air, if not fraud. Very recently (July 2022), a large-scale study found that there is no link between serotonin and depression, completely disproving the theory of chemical imbalance in the brain.
Meanwhile, the pharmaceutical marketing of the ‘chemical imbalance in the brain’ had done a terrific job. The theory became so popular that to date there are no less than 49,444 ‘scientific’ articles on serotonin reuptake inhibitors published on the biomedical database PubMed. One by one they are based on a hypothesis that has no basis in fact.
This clearly shows that psychiatry has a scientific guise, but is not validated. The Hidden Horrors of Psychiatry documents the background of this “chemical imbalance” and how it has been misused, as well as what selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors really are and do and the consequences they can have.
Psychotherapy: validation lacking
With his psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud was the great pioneer of psychotherapy. He laid the foundation for numerous other forms of psychotherapy. It goes too far to describe them all here, but some examples include cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and interpersonal therapy (IPT), cognitive therapy, directive therapy, Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT), Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), existential counseling and psychotherapy, Gestalt therapy, hypnotherapy, integrative psychotherapy, Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP), Nonviolent Communication (NVC), Pesso-psychotherapy, Psychodrama, Rational Emotive Therapy (RET), writing therapy, Transactional Analysis, Vegetotherapy, etc. The list goes on and on.
The reason why there are so many is simply that practitioners are not satisfied with the results—just as Jung and Adler showed their dissatisfaction with Freud’s psychoanalysis. Out of this dissatisfaction comes the need to develop one’s own version which is then later also discarded. Within psychology and psychiatry, there is no psychotherapy that is standardized and always works. That is not to say that there is not the occasional anecdotal success.
For psychotherapy, too, any validation is lacking. There are no laws and always working techniques. It is experimental and much depends on the personality, empathy, and communication skills of the psychiatrist/therapist.
The Hidden Horrors of Psychiatry presents the background of the various psychotherapies and how they have evolved.
What do psychiatry’s statistics show?
Should you doubt the above statements, take a look at the statistics for
- The prevention of mental health problems
- the number of deaths after or during psychiatric treatment and
- The use of psychopharmaceuticals.
If psychiatric diagnoses and treatments were validated and proven safe and effective in real life, there should be marked improvement in each of these areas. The Hidden Horrors of Psychiatry presents the hard numbers for each of the three—the statistics speak volumes about what the results of psychiatry truly are.
Psychiatry: nothing more than an experimental ideology
The lack of validation of psychiatric treatments and the arbitrariness of the DSM’s diagnoses leave psychiatry as nothing more than an experimental ideology. After all, it is not hard science but doctrines, myths, beliefs, and ideas that are leading. Whether it is the diagnosis itself, the use of psychopharmaceuticals, electroshock, or psychotherapy, all are purely experimental activities of which the efficacy has not been proven The Hidden Horrors of Psychiatry details how this holds true for both the psychodynamic* and biological† models within psychiatry, with the latter’s treatments sometimes being extremely dangerous.
* psychodynamic model: the theories of how human behavior, thoughts, and emotions are influenced by the unconscious. The psychodynamic model began with the ideas of Austrian neurologist Sigmund Freud, (1856-1939), the founder of psychoanalysis, and later others, such as psychiatrists Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961) and Alfred Adler (1870-1937).
† biological model: referring to the model in which disease and/or disorders are reduced to a problem in solely biological processes (hereditary and biochemical factors).
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Read more in ‘The Hidden Horrors of Psychiatry’
The above text uses quotes from and is based on the book The Hidden Horrors of Psychiatry. This 482-page reference work contains excellently documented information on psychiatric diagnoses and treatments and their effects on children and adults. It is essential for physicians, psychiatrists, psychologists, nurses, legislators, parliamentarians, judges, lawyers, forensic doctors, police officers, employers, remedial educators, teachers, and parents, among others. You will get answers to questions such as:
- What is the scientific underpinning of medicine in general and psychiatry in particular?
- What is the difference between academic and commercial science?
- What is the DSM, how has this book evolved, and what impact has it had on diagnoses?
- What was the “Putsch” that resulted in DSM-III and changed psychiatry forever
- How are psychiatric diagnoses made?
- What is the history of psychiatry?
- Who turned psychiatry into a materialistic ideology by stating that man is only an animal and that his mental faculties are in the brain?
- What is biological psychiatry?
- What about psychodynamic psychiatry?
- How has the alliance between psychiatry and the pharmaceutical industry affected mental health care?
- What about the safety and efficacy of psychopharmaceuticals?
- By what three developments can you judge the efficacy of psychiatric diagnoses and therapies?
- What are the various shock therapies and what is the underlying rationale for employing them?
- What are the dangers of electroshock?
- What is the relationship between psychiatric treatment and suicide and homicide?
- What has psychiatry done globally and systematically—up to the present day—in terms of human rights violations?
- What can benevolent psychiatrists do to prevent harmful ‘therapies’ by their colleagues?
- What is the relationship between deteriorating education and the diagnoses of children?
- What is ADHD and what can be done about it without heavy medication?
- What is the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD)?
- How can the CRPD signify the end of psychiatry as we know it today?
- What can you do to help your child learn better?
- How can you help family, friends, or employees with mental health problems?
Get informed. Order The Hidden Horrors of Psychiatry on Amazon today. This reference work is available as hardcover, paperback and kindle.