Saving Normal Chapter Summary

When people think of an “illness” they typically don’t automatically think of mental illness. They think about HIV, cancer, or even a cold or flu. However when it comes to mental illness it is a whole different idea. But is mental illness even real? Addressed in the book, The Myth of Mental Illness (1961), a psychiatrist Thomas Szasz argues that the idea of classifying psychological and emotional difficulties as “illnesses” takes away sense of control. Instead of holding people personally and morally responsible for their actions, he states, doctors attempt to “treat” the person, often with medications. Diagnosing mental illness, on the other hand, argue that mental disorders are as real as physical diseases and diagnosing them allows people

Americans are now spending billions of dollars on psychiatric medications but according to Frances “We are ignoring the people who have severe psychiatric illness; so that, one-third of people with severe depression see a mental health clinician, two-thirds don’t. Two-thirds of people with severe depression get no treatment at all. At the same time, we’re way over-diagnosing people who have milder problems that would get better on their own.” Diagnosis can cause more harm than good when not really needed. We are over-treating those who don’t need treatment, while neglecting those who do.

Some say that “doctors are overdosing normal sadness to major depression” and that antidepressants actually make the situation worse or bring on depression that wasn’t there. For some people taking antidepressants may have effective results for a short time, but they actually increase the odds of chronical illness. Society is becoming more isolated and independent , where people live daily in irritation and aggressive lifestyles, which causes people to rebel. That everyday we all go through periods of hopelessness, which is true, but depression is where it's constant and tears you apart.” The most common explanations for the mental illness epidemic include recent overdiagnosis of psychiatric disorders, diagnostic expansionism, and psychiatry's pathologizing normal behavior”( ), or that it's easier to qualify or check the box for depression for a lot more people. Mental Illnesses put a lot of stress and disorder in the hostess life and isn’t just an over diagnostic or an act of rebellion.

Although about 450 million people in the world currently are suffering from a mental illness, many untreated, the topic still remains taboo in modern society (Mental Health). For years, people with mental illnesses have been shut away or institutionalized, and despite cultural progression in many areas, mental illnesses are still shamed and rarely brought to light outside of the psychiatric community. The many different forms in which mental illness can occur are incredibly prevalent in the world today, and there is a substantial debate about the way that they should be handled. Some people are of the opinion that mental illness is merely a variance in perception and that it either can be fixed through therapy or should not be treated at

“Come find me when you decide to not have a broken arm.” “You don’t look like you have a terminal disease. You’re just saying that to get attention.” “Can’t you just try to not get sick?” Nobody would actually say these horrible things to someone with a physical disease, and yet we find it okay to say it to someone with a mental disease. According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) every year, about 42.5 million American adults which is about 18.2% of the total adult population in the United States suffer from mental illness. 56% of these people never did not receive treatment for their mental illness, and suffered

As with all previous diagnostic manuals, the DSM-5 (APA, 2013) aims to provide a ‘common language’ for describing psychopathology in order to provide the best patient care for both the individuals. As useful as this manual has been in the past, worries have expressed with regards to future direction that psychiatry is moving towards following the many updates and additions made to the diagnostic criteria within the DSM-5 it has been argued “when does psychological suffering become an illness?”. The purpose of this writing is to critically discuss the necessity of a diagnosis from two stand points, firstly critiquing the negative impacts of a diagnosis for an individual and secondly the implications of a diagnosis at a professional level, the research presented points towards a diagnosis is becoming less necessary in today’s society. Lastly the future of psychiatry will be discussed to show how if diagnostic criteria becomes more scientific based then there may be more benefits

In the article, “The Myth of Mental Illness” written by Thomas S. Szasz, Szasz states that the concept of mental illness is essentially inconsistent because it is based on the evidence that it occurs due to the nervous system disorders, specifically brain disorders, which marks themselves through irregular thought processes. Szasz argues in opposition to the predisposition of psychiatrists to mark people who are “disabled by living” as mentally ill. In addition, Szasz believes that there is not any real illnesses of the mind, and is rather a metaphor that is not valid. He thinks that it is inappropriate to categorize mental illnesses as diseases. Furthermore, mental illness is rationally illogical as well as has harmful consequences. Psychotherapy helps people gain more knowledge about them, others, and life as stated by Szasz.

Consequently, mentally ill patients as well as those placed in psychiatric facilities are often branded as zombies (Hochwälder, 2013). Therefore, the recovery process of such people is often difficult because they face humiliation verbally or physically from others. As such, this website is very useful to people who are trying to liberate themselves from the stigma that comes with being a psychiatric patient. The design of the “Antipsychiatry Coalition” website is such that it makes use of links to provide information on various issues that revolve around mental illness and psychiatry (Antipsychiatry, 2015). For instance, the link on “myth of psychiatric diagnosis” enables the reader to read and learn about the things that people believe about psychiatry yet they are false.

Then, physicians and especially psychiatrists began to call “illness” (that is, of course mental illness) anything and everything in which they could detect a sign of malfunctioning, based on no matter what norm” (Fleming and Manvell, 1985). R.D Laing talked about the labeling of illness as a way of social control in The Politics of Experience and The Birds of Paradise (1967) (Donaldson, 2005). Laing saw psychiatry as a political profession that is used to repress individuality. (Fleming and Manvell, 1985).

Saving Normal teaches about when Allen Frances decided to write this book, there is no definition of normal, the history of psychiatrics, how inflated diagnosis are, mental illness fads we have went through or are going through, how the next illness fads are created, how to fix the problems and how you can personally fix the problem for yourself. Reading Saving Normal by Allen Frances was completely eye opening. I realized that pharmaceutical companies make a good bit of money off of mental illnesses due to doctors usually prescribing prescriptions. The sales for Big Pharma surprised me though being more than 700 billion. I also did not realize that they are conducting their own research to get the answer they need to sell their drugs.

From schizophrenia to bipolar disorder to severe depression there is no question that these are serious mental illnesses that are debilitating and require constant medical care and according to the American Psychiatric Association(APA) hording and internet disorders are just a couple of new diagnosis that they have added to the manual of mental disorder or DSM. But is this addition of new mental disorders really beneficial for the patients or is this a way for doctors and pharmaceutical companies to cash in? , this paper proposes both drawbacks and benefits to the diagnosis of mental disorders as well as investigation of some specific examples of diagnosed disorders. However, the paper’s main direction is to focus on the drawbacks which

The information published by popular sources on the subject of misdiagnosis is considerably less researched and much more experiential. For example, in his article about the danger of stigmatization within diagnoses, John Grohol refers to his experience as a psychologist. He suggests the idea that diagnosis can be harmful because it leads to toxic labeling, such as calling someone with depression “a depressive” (Grohol). Grohol believes that this contributes to the stigma produced by professionals within the mental health community. Another article, written by a man with Asperger’s syndrome, draws from his personal experiences to suggest that diagnosis itself can be either a positive or negative experience depending on the person who is receiving

The growing population extends in diversity by the second around the world, for there is not a single human being identical to another. In terms of personality, looks, and interests, each individual creates a unique addition to our own developed society. Tolerance towards indifferences to the percent of population containing a mental illness needs to be expanded. Society needs to expose the reality of the multiplicity of individuals. Undeniably, different characteristics about a person should be identified. However, people should not be labeled with a diagnosis or a disorder due to their actions.The members of the world today have most likely experienced a form of mental instability at one point in their life. The education provided to the public concerning mental illnesses is limited, and perhaps not taken seriously. Addressing the problem and educating society 's people is the only way to reach a solution to a broad conflict. To expose the amount of people that struggle with an illness that disables them to act differently in situations would create a wider understanding of different reactions. Society has isolated these actions of mental illnesses as something to be ashamed of over time, and have discriminated these acts making them prohibited. To reach a solution of tolerance towards mental disorders, the combination of actions for addressing the problem, educating the public of the intolerance, and

Practically, therapy is the process of meeting with a counsellor or psychotherapist for the purpose of resolving problematic behaviours, beliefs, feelings and related physical symptoms (Ulman, 2001). The radical and visionary ideas of Ronald D. Laing that associated with the anti-psychiatry movement challenged the psychoanalysis establishment, clamming that diagnosis was scientifically meaningless (Kotowicz, 1997). Laing (1964) argues that the ‘mad’ were sometimes saner than the ‘normal’ – he believes that the psychotic experiences may have healing dimension, and the psychiatrists are the actual anti-psychiatry as their function has nothing to do with the healing (Laing & Cooper, 1964). Likewise, Arthur W. Comb, was a beacon for humanistic education during the half of the 20th century, believes that the body gets well by itself, propelled by its own basic need (Combs, 1989) (Murray, 1938). He assumes that the doctor could not cure the person, but to create conditions that will make it possible for the drive for fulfilment

We exist in a time where most of what was considered taboo is now being accepted as a variance in lifestyle, practice, or behavior. People are being judged less for who or what they are and the trend of openness and tolerance is setting in. Although we have made strong efforts as a society to be understanding and loving to all, some in our world still hold traditional and archaic views on certain issues. In some parts of the world the illness of ‘depression’ still holds no value or merit. “Depression (major depressive disorder) is a common and serious medical illness that negatively affects how you feel, the way you think and how you act.” (American Psychiatric Association, n.d.). Depression ha the classification of ‘medical illness’, but