Psychiatry, sweetie, is the ultimate high-society hustle. A bit of a scam at times- really.
In Allen Frances’s book 'Saving Normal', the old (incredible) insider plays both sides.
One moment he’s confessing that the DSM turned everyday quirks into gold-plated diagnoses. Then he’s condemning the system even more and telling us he's responsible for the autism surge.
The truth? Diagnoses are invented in backrooms, voted into existence like casting calls at a Beverly Hills mansion.
No blood tests, no scans, no hard evidence – just a committee deciding whether your heartbreak, your wild night, your traumatic abuse and it's injustices or your kid’s fidgeting- deserves a label not a resolution.
And every new label is another shot of champagne for Big Pharma- that let's face it- hasn't updated it's ethical framework in a while?
The drugs? Love- they don’t heal- they ,*mask* they sedate, they numb, they toy with your body chemistry like a bad boy with a trust fund.
Akathisia, obesity, diabetes, kidney damage, anehedonia (subsequent suicide) early death – all hidden under sleek advertising that sells them as miracle pills.
Antidepressants and antipsychotics sound glamorous, but they’re more like back-alley cocktails: unpredictable, addictive, and dangerous. Psychiatry knows this- but are they addressing it?
Frances paints psychiatry as an innocent victim sometimes, manipulated by drug companies and insurance giants. Please.
These psychiatrists aren’t babes in the woods – they’re power players in designer suits, cashing checks while telling us it’s all for our own good.
The corruption - is big- and it runs deep.
Characters with money, connections, and endless resources rising like phoenixes on Prozac. It’s fiction dressed up as science.
Here’s the real scene: millions of parents feeding their kids stimulants because schools can’t cope, while those same drugs are traded on the street like jewels.
Millions of adults numbed, sedated, and told it’s “treatment" when the right nutrients and behavioural health plan would probably be way more helpful!
Psychiatry has turned human pain into the sexiest industry in town – all gloss, no substance, and deadly underneath.
References
Moncrieff J. The myth of the chemical cure: a critique of psychiatric drug treatment. Palgrave Macmillan. 2009.
Whitaker R. Anatomy of an epidemic. Crown. 2010.
Healy D. The antidepressant era. Harvard University Press. 1997.
Gøtzsche PC. Deadly medicines and organised crime. Radcliffe. 2013.
Kirsch I et al. Initial severity and antidepressant benefits: a meta-analysis of data submitted to the Food and Drug Administration. PLoS Med. 2008.
Angell M. The epidemic of mental illness: why? New York Review of Books. 2011.
Frances A. DSM 5 is guide not bible—ignore its ten worst changes. BMJ. 2013.
Hengartner MP. How effective are antidepressants for depression over the long term? A critical review of relapse prevention trials. Ther Adv Psychopharmacol. 2020.
Liz Lucy Robillard - working on the book
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