Thanks Nial, All of that was amazing-i loved it-this bit really got to me-
""A few years later, I put the case that psychiatry is engaged on a massive, long-term project of reclassifying people with personality disorders as "mentally-ill," and putting them on drugs, such that if they weren't mentally-ill before they started these powerful and unpredictable chemicals, they soon will be [2]. ""
cause the bigger crime is "they wont stop them or take them away"- for anyone- reporting adverse effects- to "prove"- they are adverse effects. ( the mad you speak of)
That crimes the biggest of "GovtMHPsychiatries" crimes..in my opinion. Just having a bit of fun up there with the Carol King verse--even though- and that aside-- you are very cool-..:-)
Congratulations on the book- I look forward to reading it.
When you say outdated (the Humanizing series and the Mind-Body Problem Explained presumably), have the fundamentals of the model changed significantly?
No, it is still a natural dualist model but the sketchy details have been filled in. To be precise, filled in at a level never before seen in psychiatry, or many other fields.
Speaking of other fields, (and I think this is related to your article this week somewhat as it involves not having a model), I assisted in a lecture to first year psychology students a few weeks back who were basically told by the lead lecturer ADHD was a neuropsychiatric disease. It was mixed in with other conditions such as hemi spatial neglect and Balint’s syndrome, but in the lecture ADHD was linked to an awful study written by someone (no real qualifications) who declared it to be biological and wrote a paper on how drugs are the answer.
I did challenge the lead lecturer on what she was saying for about 2 hours after the lecture, and she came out with virtually every argument you have mentioned before to justify ADHD/psychiatric conditions as a disease- it was quite amazing to hear her regurgitate every trick in the book.
I suspected there was a trend in psychology based on perceived sexism which is fueling the idea that ADHD is under diagnosed in females. Hence, as most psychology lecturers and students are female, the idea that ADHD is a bona fide medical condition gets pushed even more on the basis females need the condition recognized as much as men do for equality’s sake, which dangerously and indirectly supports its validity making the acceptance of any new models such as yours even more difficult.
Two questions 1) do you think babies have an inherited temperament, related to future personality and susceptibility to certain types of mental distress and 2) do you believe people have "free will" if mental disturbance not sure to a brain disease?
1) Yes, it is highly likely (but still unproven) that we have innate tendencies to react to certain events in certain ways but the mediating factor is anxiety, which mainstream psychiatry doesn't recognise. I don't doubt that some people are born inclined to anxiety and some don't really feel it - premature babies are more anxious than term, and unless this is countered during early childhood, then it will remain a fixture for rest of their lives. This is just a tendency, not an absolute drive, and early life experiences (favourable vs unfavourable) determine the final outcome.
2) Yes, we have free will. Our information-processing capacity means that our behaviour is non-deterministic; I develop this case in Natural Dualism and Mental Disorder (which is now in paperback).
Regarding innate tendencies - having had 5 children and spending several years raising them full time I can definitely report that each child had its own temperament, right from the beginning. For instance two of my kids even when only a few years old would offer people biscuits on a plate BEFORE taking any themselves, the other three would only offer biscuits to others AFTER they had got the biscuits they wanted for themselves. Also three were good sleepers from the beginning and could sleep even through an action packed movie, for instance. The other two needed quiet and no distractions to sleep. The ability to shut out external stimuli and go to sleep continues today in the same pattern as they are now young adults. I sleep well but my husband doesnt. Why do you not accept the OCEAN criteria for personality for instance?
Nobody does it better
Makes me feel sad for the rest
Nobody does it half as good as you
Niall, you're the best
And nobody does it better
Though sometimes I wish someone could
Nobody does it quite the way you do
Why'd you have to be so good?
Thanks Nial, All of that was amazing-i loved it-this bit really got to me-
""A few years later, I put the case that psychiatry is engaged on a massive, long-term project of reclassifying people with personality disorders as "mentally-ill," and putting them on drugs, such that if they weren't mentally-ill before they started these powerful and unpredictable chemicals, they soon will be [2]. ""
cause the bigger crime is "they wont stop them or take them away"- for anyone- reporting adverse effects- to "prove"- they are adverse effects. ( the mad you speak of)
That crimes the biggest of "GovtMHPsychiatries" crimes..in my opinion. Just having a bit of fun up there with the Carol King verse--even though- and that aside-- you are very cool-..:-)
Congratulations on the book- I look forward to reading it.
When you say outdated (the Humanizing series and the Mind-Body Problem Explained presumably), have the fundamentals of the model changed significantly?
No, it is still a natural dualist model but the sketchy details have been filled in. To be precise, filled in at a level never before seen in psychiatry, or many other fields.
Speaking of other fields, (and I think this is related to your article this week somewhat as it involves not having a model), I assisted in a lecture to first year psychology students a few weeks back who were basically told by the lead lecturer ADHD was a neuropsychiatric disease. It was mixed in with other conditions such as hemi spatial neglect and Balint’s syndrome, but in the lecture ADHD was linked to an awful study written by someone (no real qualifications) who declared it to be biological and wrote a paper on how drugs are the answer.
I did challenge the lead lecturer on what she was saying for about 2 hours after the lecture, and she came out with virtually every argument you have mentioned before to justify ADHD/psychiatric conditions as a disease- it was quite amazing to hear her regurgitate every trick in the book.
I suspected there was a trend in psychology based on perceived sexism which is fueling the idea that ADHD is under diagnosed in females. Hence, as most psychology lecturers and students are female, the idea that ADHD is a bona fide medical condition gets pushed even more on the basis females need the condition recognized as much as men do for equality’s sake, which dangerously and indirectly supports its validity making the acceptance of any new models such as yours even more difficult.
Two questions 1) do you think babies have an inherited temperament, related to future personality and susceptibility to certain types of mental distress and 2) do you believe people have "free will" if mental disturbance not sure to a brain disease?
1) Yes, it is highly likely (but still unproven) that we have innate tendencies to react to certain events in certain ways but the mediating factor is anxiety, which mainstream psychiatry doesn't recognise. I don't doubt that some people are born inclined to anxiety and some don't really feel it - premature babies are more anxious than term, and unless this is countered during early childhood, then it will remain a fixture for rest of their lives. This is just a tendency, not an absolute drive, and early life experiences (favourable vs unfavourable) determine the final outcome.
2) Yes, we have free will. Our information-processing capacity means that our behaviour is non-deterministic; I develop this case in Natural Dualism and Mental Disorder (which is now in paperback).
Regarding innate tendencies - having had 5 children and spending several years raising them full time I can definitely report that each child had its own temperament, right from the beginning. For instance two of my kids even when only a few years old would offer people biscuits on a plate BEFORE taking any themselves, the other three would only offer biscuits to others AFTER they had got the biscuits they wanted for themselves. Also three were good sleepers from the beginning and could sleep even through an action packed movie, for instance. The other two needed quiet and no distractions to sleep. The ability to shut out external stimuli and go to sleep continues today in the same pattern as they are now young adults. I sleep well but my husband doesnt. Why do you not accept the OCEAN criteria for personality for instance?
All will be revealed over next week or two.