What else?

“No further evidence is needed to show that ‘mental illness’ is not the name of a biological condition whose nature awaits to be elucidated, but is the name of a concept whose purpose is to obscure the obvious!” Thomas Szasz

“If you talk to God, you are praying. If God talks to you, you have schizophrenia. “ Thomas Szasz

My dear friend, Doctor Memarzadeh, who used to have a negative attitude toward the so-called “antipsychiatric movement” has started some posts regarding this movements. These posts reminded me of a post that I had last year and also my correspondence with a gentleman who I found out later on that had been diagnosed as having schizophrenia. Here is my post and also our correspondence.

I also need to mention here that I strongly believe that mental patients should enjoy all the rights that other people have; but ignoring the fact that for example schizophrenics are “patients” and need professional help to deal with their illness, would definitely lead to a significant damage to the patients themselves, their families, and society. In the era that people with minor problems such as adjustment disorders seek help and are treated to have a better life, saying that the most devastating mental disorder is just a wrong label seems more likely to be joke.

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Schizophrenia as a brain disorder

 

1. Psychiatrists divide so-called psychiatric disorders into two major categories, namely neurotic and psychotic disorders. Neurotic disorders such as anxiety and depression are defined as conditions manifested by different maladaptive behaviors while the ability to rational thinking is preserved. Individuals with psychosis (most notably schizophrenics), on the other hand, are those who are out of touch with reality. This irrationality might be presented by misconceptions (e.g. hallucinations), misperceptions (e.g. delusions), or thought and behavior disorganizations.

2. Anti-psychiatry movement tries to challenge the notion of “mental disorders”, despite ample evidence showing that for example people with schizophrenia have certain neurochemical, neurodevelopmental, and neuroanatomical deviations. (Thomas Szasz, the most famous member of this movement claims that mental illness is a “myth”).

3. There are different reasons why some people are against the biological approach to mental disorders, such as social reasons (stigmatizing), political reasons (hospitalizing and suppressing the opposition), and scientific reasons (the causes of mental disorders are still unknown).

3. It is true that “there is no absolute truth”, but when converging evidence shows that something is true, it must be considered as being true until otherwise is proven. In the same way, it is hard to believe that the delusional experiences of someone who has become psychotic for any reason (schizophrenia, brain surgery, using cannabis, etc) may represent some kind of reality.

4. Schizophrenia is a highly debilitating condition. Most of the patients have cognitive impairments (such as deficits in memory and executive function), and “negative symptoms” (such as social isolation) in addition to their psychotic symptoms. If not treated properly, most of schizophrenics will face serious medical, social and economical disasters. Thus, it is not only about perceiving the world in a different way (!), being controlled by the psychiatrist, or being stigmatized for political reasons.

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- :“We have been lied to by the psychiatrist for many many years. He has told us that he would help us with our mental health problems.” Thomas Szasz

Kamyar: I wouldn’t go as extreme as Thomas Szasz; I look at so-called mental diseases as neurological disorders. Schizophrenia IS a disease, as addiction is, and as diabetes is; this is what I learned from studying the human brain.

-: Schizophrenia is a list of apparent sypmtoms grouped together and labelled “schizophrenia”. You mentioned the fact that you “look at mental dieases as neurological disorders”. This is an interesting choice of words because that is how, essentially, a psychiatrist comes up with a diagnosis. He has absolutely no scientific basis for his medical opinions Kamyar. He “looks”. Thanks for your message and I hope to hear from you soon. Sorry it took so long for me to write.

Kamyar: Good to hear from you,
I agree that Schizophrenia is not a homogeneous disease; I think so many researchers regard it as a syndrome rather than a single disorder as you said. But no one claims that science is perfect or supposed to be. The fact that we cannot perfectly diagnose and treat schizophrenia is something, and that schizophrenics have some sort of malfunctions is something else. I appreciate the efforts of those who try to change the psychiatrist-patient relationship to become a more humanistic and equal one, but my knowledge of nervous system in healthy and schizophrenic individuals doesn’t let me go further to regard this debilitating disease as a neurodiversity! Schizophrenia is different from adjustment or let’s say personality disorders. It is a progressive disease which may lead to disorganazion of thoughts and even catatonia. It’s not all about hearing voices or having bizarre delusions.