In “Mad Science: Psychiatric Coercion, Diagnosis and Drugs” (2013, Transaction Publishers), Gomory and co-authors Stuart A. Kirk of the University of California-Los Angeles and David Cohen of Florida International University discuss several key points that the international psychiatric community is beginning to wrestle with, including the description of troubling human behaviors as medical diseases…Gomory and his co-authors base their claims on eight years of reviewing mainstream research and analyzing the history of madness and psychiatry as well as the language of psychiatry. In the final chapter, they envision a “nonmedicalized” future of helping the seriously emotionally troubled members of society...“We argue that simply labeling troubling human behavior as a brain disease is not the answer,” Gomory said…When it comes to solving behavior that is strange, absurd or frightening, Gomory says that society should work within psychological, social, ethical and moral parameters rather than medical parameters, and never rely on coercive measures such as forced institutionalization.
Read more interesting selected extracts, links and find all references in the Blog Tracing Knowledge by clicking here.
Alternative therapies to traditional medicine such as hypnotherapy may become of use in a “nonmedicalized future” for the treatment of incommoding behaviours. Similar to psychiatry, hypnotherapy still lacks the full support of objective science. Different from the applied psychiatry mentioned in this article, hypnotherapy does not include the prescription of medication, offering a range of non invasive techniques. An ecclectic treatment plan including the possible use of techniques from all fields of psychology would encourage the consideration of “psychological, social, ethical and moral parameters”. This combined with hypnosis, may contribute to finding the appropriate positive results for each particular case.
Related articles
- Psychiatric Drugs and Mind Control (madinamerica.com)
- Madness is a Messy Affair (whiskyandtea.wordpress.com)
