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Panel on life of R. D. Laing, dissident psychiatrist
Psychiatric Labels
Harm caused by unscientific psychiatric diagnoses.
Let's Stop Saying "Mental Illness"!
It is helpful to use other phrases for people who have in the past been described as "mentally ill." This is a living essay, and the author updates it periodically. If you have any feedback or suggestions let the author know c/o the MindFreedom office. [Modified 8/9/11.]
Psychiatric Labels Plague Women's Mental Health
Paula Caplan, PhD is an author, psychologist and long-time critic of psychiatric labeling. Paula is also a MindFreedom activist who has attended the MindFreedom Action Conference, and is providing some great information to members about how to fight abuse caused by psychiatric labeling.
BBC: "Schizophrenia term use 'invalid'"
BBC News: Professors say psychiatric use of the term "schizophrenia" ought to be abolished because it's unscientific.
Site Critical of Psychiatric Diagnosis Hazards
Information coordinated by Paula Caplan, PhD about the kinds of harm resulting directly from receiving psychiatric diagnoses and about suggested solutions.
Bruce Levine Challenges Corporate Labeling of "Depression"
Dissident psychologist Bruce E. Levine reviews two books -- "Lincoln’s Melancholy: How Depression Challenged a President and Fueled His Greatness," by Joshua Wolf Shenk and "Against Depression" by Peter D. Kramer -- in "Z Magazine" Jan. 2007.
Globalization of Psychiatric Labeling
A brief alert about how the American Psychiatric Association has closed the door on psychiatric survivor group involvement in the future and globalization of psychiatric labeling.
Brain Test Could Help Make Earlier Diagnoses
An "elegantly simple test" for analyzing the dynamic magnetic fields of the brain has been surprisingly accurate so far, and shows promise in detecting neurological disorders, virtually all of which could not, before now, be diagnosed via any form of available testing. Nearly 300 patients and healthy volunteers have been assessed at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Minneapolis, where Dr. Apostolos Georgopoulos used a technology known as MEG (magnetoencephalography) to study the brains of patients with Alzheimer's, chronic alcoholism, schizophrenia, multiple sclerosis, and other disorders. Georgopoulos developed a method for analyzing the magnetism data and licensed the technology to a startup company, Orasi Medical Inc.
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual Five
American Psychiatric Association is -- behind closed doors -- preparing the latest version of their "label bible," the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual or DSM.
Psychiatrists Revise the Book of Human Troubles
The New York Times covers the mysterious creation of the fifth version of the "label bible" of the American Psychiatric Association, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manuarl (DSM). Psychiatrist Darrel A. Regier is in charge of the process, and has chosen to keep the process secret, even though the DSM has the force of law in a variety of mental health related activities, such as commitment hearings.
Information about American Psychiatric Association Fifth Try at Diagnostic and Statistical Manual
The American Psychiatric Association is attempting to update what is considered their "label bible" of psychiatric diagnoses, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual. The APA is planning to create a "DSM 5." MindFreedom is calling on a halt on the process and a dialogue about the harm caused by psychiatric labeling.
Psychiatry Considers Eliminating "Bereavement Exclusion" for Depression Diagnosis
The American Psychiatric Association currently excludes people who have had a death of a loved one from being diagnosed with "depression" in the short term. For the APA's next edition of their 'label bible' -- called the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual -- they are considering eliminating this exclusion. In other words, an individual who has just suffered the death of a loved one may get a "mental disorder" diagnosis of "clinical depression" on their 15th day of experiencing extreme grief. Even an editor of the current "DSM," feels that this is overly-medicalizing people's experiences. MindFreedom has long warned that psychiatric labeling can result in prescriptions for needless psychiatric drugs, as well as discrimination and hopelessness.
The Mental Illness Industry Is Medicalising Normality
The well-respected UK newspaper The Guardian published this piece criticizing the over-use of psychiatric labeling, and the way the process is "medicalizing" what is considered "normal."
