Home | Community | Message Board
You are not signed in.
Sign In New Account
Forum Index Search Posts Trusted Vendors Highlights Galleries FAQ User List Chat Store Random Growery

MagicBag Grow Bags
This site includes paid links. Please support our sponsors.

General Interest > Philosophy, Sociology & Psychology
Threaded Mode Threaded  Previous topic Previous  View all topics Index  Next topic Next 

Welcome to the Shroomery Message Board! You are experiencing a small sample of what the site has to offer. Please login or register to post messages and view our exclusive members-only content. You'll gain access to additional forums, file attachments, board customizations, encrypted private messages, and much more!

Unfolding Nature Shop: Unfolding Nature: Being in the Implicate Order

Jump to first unread post Pages: 1
Psychiatry
    #7755845 -

This is just something I've been thinking about...

If the premise of modern psychiatry is true - that mental illnesses are caused by biological factors and can be treated as if they were a regular disease - then it seems psychiatrists should pass the buck to neurologists. Between psychology (which studies behavior), neuroscience (which studies how the brain operates on a biological/chemical level) and cognitive science (which attempts to bridge the gap between neuroscience and psychology, among other things) I do not see a valid place for psychiatry as an independent scientific field.

Furthermore, I do not think that psychiatry as adequately proven that mental illnesses actually exist as biological diseases, mainly because "disease" is a difficult term to ascribe to a behavior or cognition. Psychiatry still mainly deals with constructs. For instance, "mania" is an abstraction used to describe a certain type of behavior. Comparing mania to other medical definitions, such as cancer or anemia highlights this point. There are objective tests we can use to determine whether someone has cancer or anemia, but no such test to diagnose mania, aside from the psychiatrists observation and interview.
Does psychiatry deserve its own field in the study of the mind?
You may choose only one
Do mental illnesses exist?
You may choose only one


Votes accepted from 12/13/07 08:58 PM until the end of time

View the results of this poll | Filter by response


Extras: Filter Print Post Top
Re: Psychiatry [Re: MushmanTheManic]
    #7755924 -

Yes, psychiatry deserves its own field in the study of the mind, but no, mental illness' do not exist in an objective reality.

Extras: Filter Print Post Top
Re: Psychiatry [Re: MushmanTheManic]
    #7756106 -

you are obviously a brainwashed scientologist.

Extras: Filter Print Post Top
Re: Psychiatry [Re: SneezingPenis]
    #7756233 -

Psychology is not science, but it fulfills a much-needed role in human society. Today's psychotherapists fill the same function as the shamans, philosophers, and priests to whom we no longer listen so closely; they're people who are trained and paid to interpret our lives and thoughts in broader and more meaningful terms than we can perceive on our own, and to help us find a path that works for us.

Unfortunately, psychiatry wouldn't work if it didn't call itself a science, because its practice would lose its credibility. And this is where things start to go awry, because psychiatry is NOT a science and it's not empirical, but some of its practitioners and many of its beneficiaries have not thought it through to that extent.

The only empirical, scientifically valid way to map the human brain (and by extension the human mind) is through study of the brain's electrical and chemical makeup.

I'm definitely willing to believe that the contents of one's mind could be so disorganized and unworkable as to be considered afflicted by some kind of illness, but the etiology is not understood. Sufferers of mental illnesses like schizophrenia, bipolar, and emotional disorders can have slightly different-structured brains and different neurotransmitter balances from supposedly "normal" people, but nobody can say which comes first, the disorder or the neurological differences. Being that the true nature of thought is pretty much unknown to science, the widespread prescription of psychopharmaceuticals, as well as the effort to categorize or "cure" mental disorders in general, is VERY premature and possibly dangerous.


--------------------
Enlil said:
You really are the worst kind of person.


Edited by Tchan909 (12/13/07 11:53 PM)

Extras: Filter Print Post Top
Re: Psychiatry [Re: MushmanTheManic]
    #7756408 -

Mental illnesses may not exist biologically, but we do know that certain drugs have a certain effect on the brain which can improve the symptoms that we associate with mental illness. Anyway, I was diagnosed with ADHD as a kid, which allowed me to have a steady supply of dexedrine throughout high school and college. So I've always kind of thought of my psychiatrists as dealers. This viewpoint has led me to enjoy their services while at the same time not respecting their profession. If I could buy dexedrine, adderal, ritalin, etc. over the counter, I wouldn't have bothered seeing a psychiatrist.


--------------------

Extras: Filter Print Post Top
Re: Psychiatry [Re: Silversoul]
    #7756452 -

I've considered getting myself medicated for ADHD for quite a while. I have a really short attention span, and I have no doubt that if I approached a doctor or psychiatrist asking to have it "treated" I'd have a prescription by the end of the day. I just don't know if that's right for me, though.

ADHD treatments don't strike me as being too bad, but antipsychotics and antidepressants are often used as long-term solutions, when their only real function is to hide the manifestation of a persisting issue. They enable people to ignore their real problems and can cause permanent damage in the long term.


--------------------
Enlil said:
You really are the worst kind of person.


Edited by Tchan909 (12/13/07 10:48 PM)

Extras: Filter Print Post Top
Re: Psychiatry [Re: Sophistic Radiance]
    #7756494 -

is the attention span located near the limbic region?

I missed that part of my neurology class.

also.... can you name anything that a person can do that doesnt affect the brain in some way? I mean, breathing deep creates changes in the chemical makeup of your brain.

oh, and... is it ethical (or even scientific) to perform, diagnose, and prescribe on the basis of the ends justifying the means?

Extras: Filter Print Post Top
Re: Psychiatry [Re: SneezingPenis]
    #7756497 -

Who knows?, no, and no.


--------------------
Enlil said:
You really are the worst kind of person.


Extras: Filter Print Post Top
Re: Psychiatry [Re: SneezingPenis]
    #7759663 -

YawningAnus said:
you are obviously a brainwashed scientologist.


Hehe, I don't even really know anything about Scientology.

Extras: Filter Print Post Top
Re: Psychiatry [Re: Boots]
    #7759990 -

Scientology is scary.


--------------------
Enlil said:
You really are the worst kind of person.


Extras: Filter Print Post Top
Re: Psychiatry [Re: Sophistic Radiance]
    #7760372 -

There is a problem with this thread and your idea of the premise of modern psychology. You have attributed one aspect of one field of psychology to the entire school of psychology. There are many different fields, and the one that believes everything can be boiled down to neuroscience is one field. And most of them think it's a mixture of factors, not just one thing.

http://auburn.edu/psychology/ug/major/fields.htm


--------------------
Loving in truth, and fain in verse my love to show, That the dear She might take some pleasure of my pain: Pleasure might cause her read, reading might make her know, Knowledge might pity win, and pity grace obtain.

Extras: Filter Print Post Top
Re: Psychiatry [Re: jonathanseagull]
    #7760443 -

A psychiatrist is a type of physician, not a type of psychologist.

Extras: Filter Print Post Top
Re: Psychiatry [Re: MushmanTheManic]
    #7760663 -

MushmanTheManic said:
A psychiatrist is a type of physician, not a type of psychologist.


You're right, I misread. Sorry.


--------------------
Loving in truth, and fain in verse my love to show, That the dear She might take some pleasure of my pain: Pleasure might cause her read, reading might make her know, Knowledge might pity win, and pity grace obtain.

Extras: Filter Print Post Top
Re: Psychiatry [Re: MushmanTheManic]
    #7765564 -

I do not see a valid place for psychiatry [/b ]

:thumbup::thumbup::thumbup:


--------------------
"Don't believe everything you think". -Anom.

" All that lives was born to die"-Anom.

With much wisdom comes much sorrow,
The more knowledge, the more grief.
Ecclesiastes circa 350 BC

Extras: Filter Print Post Top
Re: Psychiatry [Re: Icelander]
    #7765644 -

http://www.shroomery.org/forums/dosearch.php

that is about a 10th of all the threads I have made or been a part of that go into very lengthy discussions of this exact topic.

Extras: Filter Print Post Top
Re: Psychiatry [Re: SneezingPenis]
    #7766407 -

well I just learned that you cant post a search results page......

Extras: Filter Print Post Top
Re: Psychiatry [Re: SneezingPenis]
    #7767298 -

Psychiatry is a science of the mind not the brain.

YawningAnus said:
you are obviously a brainwashed scientologist.


Lol fuckin' awesome!


--------------------

"We are going to die, and that makes us the lucky ones. Most people are never going to die because they are never going to be born. The potential people who could have been here in my place but who will in fact never see the light of day outnumber the sand grains of Arabia. Certainly those unborn ghosts include greater poets than Keats, scientists greater than Newton. We know this because the set of possible people allowed by our DNA so massively exceeds the set of actual people. In the teeth of these stupefying odds it is you and I, in our ordinariness, that are here." - Richard Dawkins

Extras: Filter Print Post Top
Re: Psychiatry [Re: wyldeman007]
    #7767385 -

wyldeman007 said:
Psychiatry is a science of the mind not the brain.

YawningAnus said:
you are obviously a brainwashed scientologist.


Lol fuckin' awesome!


According to the tenets of modern psychiatry, the mind is the the brain.

Extras: Filter Print Post Top
Re: Psychiatry [Re: MushmanTheManic]
    #7767490 -

the the brain is not the mind, mind is a complex distribution of the forces of the brain and cannot be quantified because it's not advanced enough to behold it's own mechanics. The brain is both the hardware and the software, the mind is something totally separate, I think.


--------------------

"We are going to die, and that makes us the lucky ones. Most people are never going to die because they are never going to be born. The potential people who could have been here in my place but who will in fact never see the light of day outnumber the sand grains of Arabia. Certainly those unborn ghosts include greater poets than Keats, scientists greater than Newton. We know this because the set of possible people allowed by our DNA so massively exceeds the set of actual people. In the teeth of these stupefying odds it is you and I, in our ordinariness, that are here." - Richard Dawkins

Extras: Filter Print Post Top
Jump to top Pages: 1

Unfolding Nature Shop: Unfolding Nature: Being in the Implicate Order

General Interest > Philosophy, Sociology & Psychology
Threaded Mode Threaded  Previous topic Previous  View all topics Index  Next topic Next 

Similar ThreadsPosterViewsRepliesLast post
* Thoughts on CCHR documentary: psychiatry industry of death HighAsFucc 278 2 01/25/15 09:40 AM
by Icelander
* Psychiatry vs Pornography SneezingPenis 1,222 6 12/27/07 09:01 AM
by MushroomTrip
* Psychiatry
( 1 2 3 all )		 MolokoMilkPlus 2,901 40 06/29/05 10:21 PM
by Huehuecoyotl
* How does one find a 'good' psychiatrist?
( 1 2 3 4 5 all )		 Jokeshopbeard 4,724 81 11/21/14 07:04 AM
by zzripz
* Psychiatry is like Voodoo
( 1 2 all )		 Unagipie 1,964 37 08/25/05 09:37 AM
by Shampioenier
* Psychedelic drugs should be legally reclassified, says psychiatrist DividedQuantumM 544 6 05/31/15 12:50 PM
by once in a lifetime
* Psychiatry as a Cultural Product blingbling 1,160 16 04/22/12 10:47 AM
by Icelander
* Question about Hallucinations from a Neurology/Psychiatry MedSchool test.
( 1 2 all )		 WStallion 1,931 26 03/18/10 08:08 AM
by WStallion

Extra information
You cannot start new topics / You cannot reply to topics
HTML is disabled / BBCode is enabled
Moderator: Middleman, DividedQuantum
877 topic views. 2 members, 227 guests and 17 web crawlers are browsing this forum.
[ Show Images Only | Sort by Score | Print Topic ]
Search this thread:

Copyright 1997-2026 Mind Media. Some rights reserved.

Generated in 0.056 seconds spending 0.033 seconds on 21 queries.