The Illusions of Psychiatry

Marcia Angell

The Emperors New Drugs: Exploding the Antidepressant Myth
by Irving Kirsch

Anatomy of an Epidemic: Magic Bullets, Psychiatric Drugs, and the Astonishing Rise of Mental Illness in America
by Robert Whitaker

Unhinged: The Trouble with PsychiatryA Doctors Revelations About a Profession in Crisis
by Daniel Carlat

Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition, Text Revision (DSM-IV-TR)
by American Psychiatric Association

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United Artists/Photofest

Lan Fendors, Louise Fletcher, and Jack Nicholson in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, 1975

In my article in the last issue, I focused mainly on the recent books by psychologist Irving Kirsch and journalist Robert Whitaker, and what they tell us about the epidemic of mental illness and the drugs used to treat it. Here I discuss the American Psychiatric Associations Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM)often referred to as the bible of psychiatry, and now heading for its fifth editionand its extraordinary influence within American society. I also examine Unhinged, the recent book by Daniel Carlat, a psychiatrist, who provides a disillusioned insiders view of the psychiatric profession. And I discuss the widespread use of psychoactive drugs in children, and the baleful influence of the pharmaceutical industry on the practice of psychiatry.


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