March 27, 2009

Psychiatry and 1984

Posted in psychiatry at 9:53 by skpsycho

This is probably my last post in this blog, unless something truly important comes up. First of all, I am no longer formally authorized to write about psychiatry, because I don’t do it anymore; I withdrew from my residency program and thus relieved myself of any and all responsibility.

Secondly, and most importantly, I realized that psychiatry is not an evil in itself, but only a symptom of the malady that the whole Western society seems to be suffering from. To criticize psychiatry without regard to our society’s economy, politics, history or ecology is like treating depression without regard to a person’s lifestyle, income, diet or love. Such treatment, and such critique, generates a lot of visible ‘action’ but is in fact pointless and doesn’t help.

Besides, there are people who’ve said everything long ago and with such clarity that I can never hope to achieve. When’s the last time you read Orwell’s 1984? This book doesn’t even mention psychiatry, but it contains everything that there is to understand about it. If you’ve read and understood this book, I really have nothing else to say to you; and if you haven’t understood it, then no amount of my blogging is going to help you anyway.

And remember: Freedom is when you can say that two by two equals four, even if your Party (or your Doctor) claims otherwise. That’s all there is to it, really.

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