Criticisms Of Theories On Mental Illness by Pooja Rajesh

Bruce Poulsen, in his article in Psychology Today, takes us back to the workings and theories of psychologists who hold opposing views. While psychologists like Freud, Allen Frances and other have centered their studies around mental health and the treatment of mental illness, psychoanalyst Thomas Szasz almost ‘goes too far’ and calls mental illness a myth. In his book, the Myth Of Mental Illness, he writes about antipsychiatry, patient advocate movements and critics the disease model, the medical model of psychaiatry and the disease model for homosexuality.

Christopher Moore’s novel, The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove makes us wonder about humans dependance on psychiatric experts. The world of psychology and its uses can be explained in the simple words given by Thomas Szasz ‘In the animal kingdom, the rule is, eat or be eaten ; in the human kindgdom, define or be defined’. This is precisely what the DSM tries to the in psychological realm of the world but Szasz finds a way to find faults in this manual as well. In all of his work, he emphasizes on psychiatric skepticism and his  basic arguments are based on the underlying notion that mental illnesses are a myth. He derives this from criticizing the medical model of understanding human difficulties and struggles and from believeing that the DSM-5 falsely implies the presence of a disease. It unneccessarily categorizes a trait as a malajustment in an individuals’ personality. For all of his claims, Szasz also received ample amount of criticism from the American Medical Association (which basically holds monopoly over the treatment of mental illness), American Psychiatric Assosication and the National Institute of Mental Health for debunking the existence of medical illnesses.

What cannot be denied is the legitimacy and the success of the new DSM-5. The new manual decides who is ill and who is not, increases the access of treatment to everyone and decides who should receive what kind of services in order to alleviate the struggles of the mentally ill. On a more cynical note, and this is exactly what the manual is criticized for, the DSM-5 pathologizes normal experiences. One of the examples of the DSM-5 doing this is when it categorizes shyness as a symptom of social anxiety. Nevertheless, the DSM-5 is a dominant method that most people look to in order to get diagnosed and enlightened with the right treatment to cope with their problems. It cannot be done away with just yet no matter how much criticism it recieves.

While Szasz questions our loyalty to experts, psychonanalysis by Freud spells out the answer to this question. Freud says that humans turn to experts when they are unable to bear the unbearable and then turn to experts for explanations. The experts help us cope with experiences and troubles if they are out of the ordinary. Often, when a patient is helpless, he or she puts all their faith and hope in this other indivdual who is believed to be an expert. They are our answers to self-cure.

Other critics like William James, who is also a psychologist, would always push us to think of the usefullness of what methods we’ve come up with such as  Freud’s methods to deal with mental health. But there is little argument against the use of science-based and cognitive approaches in dealing with conditions like autism, cognitive impairments and severe depression. In J.G Ballard’s short story, in his book The Insane Ones, there is talk of a futuristic world where all psychic control is outlawed from society and the mentally ill are left to themselves. It is hard to imagine a world like this where there are no experts to turn to. This  emphasizes the need and necessity of the recognition of psychoanalysis and other similar theories in order to help individuals when they cannot cope by themselves.

It is important to appreciate the evidence-based practices in psychotherapy and advances in psychopharmocology, but the avenues in self-help must not be ignored at the same time. No matter how much the DSM or treatment theories are criticised, it cannot be ignored that they have been tried and tested for years and hence are bound to hold some validity and reliability in the real world. But to ensure everything does not go out of hand, it is important to remember  Szasz’s words. He always used to say, not to ‘mistake magic for medicine’. The writer of this article also tries to find a balance between those who oppose and support the psychological world.