Not much meat but it's a good commentary on the limitations in the specialty. Psychiatry has clearly overstepped itself in making pronouncements and assertions based on little to no facts at all, sometimes even against all the facts in evidence. The author suggests a humbling drawback, but unclear on what this could look like.
I doubt this is a popular sentiment, but it is needed. There is currently a lot of pressure in basically going all-in on the old model of making assertions out of personal beliefs and bullying them until people just give it and relent. The careful language used clearly shows this is a sensitive subject, that psychiatry will have to relent some of its own pathologies of mind before that happens. Narcissism and hubris seem to be defining traits in getting to the top of this field and act as dead weight against any change away from the failed status quo.
This is very much welcome. Because as much as is being written about the limits of our understanding of biology and physiology, the mind-over-matter magical psychology side has not achieved anything more despite a near century-long head-start. Especially as technology won't provide new insights the way it does in a biological framework. Modern humans are just as smart as our ancestors were in the last ice age and we clearly know by now that even genius does not suddenly come up with full solutions to real problems, the universe simply does not work like that.
It seems clear that psychiatry needs to be rebuilt, and academics can lead the way. Biology and dynamic psychological considerations can complement one another. Psychiatric training programs can promote epidemiology, social science, cultural expertise, community studies, prevention, and consultation–liaison work — and most important, psychotherapy
Good overall, but I disagree that psychotherapy is particularly important, as without an actual understanding it remains mostly people selling their personal perspective on something they have very little understanding of. It provides human contact and not a particularly good one at that. But absolutely the field has to be rebuilt, from more humble roots that stop trying to make personal opinions the indisputable truth where very opposition to those ideas should be taken as a sign of insanity. Self-fulfilling prophecies belong in churches, not in science.
Integrating epidemiology and social science could be interesting, as the saboteurs who have hijacked our disease pay no attention to what those tell them, simply inventing their own facts and statistics to fit their needs. The creation of a transient chronic syndrome of one symptom is just about the best example one needs of how thoroughly psychiatry has jumped far too many sharks.
