Summary
Contents
Subject index
Western countries face the biggest national mental health crisis in their history. Never have so many individuals needed mental health care – with almost one in two individuals now reporting severe psychological problems during their life time. Despite this pressing need, however, the mental health care systems in many countries are confronting grave financial threats along with long waiting lists and insufficient care. This book brings together empirical research to argue that 10 key socio-political, economic and medical crises have lead to this crisis in mental health care. In the final chapter the authors begin to look to alternatives that could help resolve this crisis.
Diagnostic Crisis
Diagnostic Crisis
In the previous chapter I examined links between industry, over-medicalisation and over-prescribing. The implication was that the latter two processes are outcomes of the extent to which industry has been permitted to exert unprecedented influence over how we, as a society, have come to understand, manage and respond to emotional distress. In this chapter I wish to focus more closely on the idea that the diagnostic process itself – championed, funded and promoted by industry, and essential to the performance of widespread prescribing – is good for the people it targets. I will challenge this view by highlighting ways in which traditional diagnostic processes harm those they purport to help. While this standpoint remains controversial, we should not underestimate its growing ...
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