Posted by trouble on February 24, 2002, at 8:18:55
In reply to Re: Webster's dictionary definition of Psychiatry, posted by OldSchool on February 23, 2002, at 12:03:00
Hi Old School,
I don't know if your question is rhetorical or not, so if not kindly indulge the following. Or not!
I suspect the answer to your question as to why we're treated by psychiatry and not neurology is, in part political, as in who ultimately "claimed" us, who "won" or "got stuck with" our patronage. Because you're on the right track, Old School, neurologists WERE the first to treat people for psychiatric disorders.
Psychiatry didn't come around until the end of the 18th century. A genetic perspective was present from the beginning. Psychiatrists, or "alienists", hung out in asylums, and didn't treat the unconfined.
There was a fight basically, btwn neurologists and psychiatrists over who gets the office-based psychotherapy market share. Incidentally I loved your Woody Allen remark, I can't stand him being the cultural paradigm of the mental patient, one more weary stereotype for me to shoulder. ARGH. In the vernacular he represents "subthreshold" disorders, or in lay terms "high lucrative."
Psychoanalysis is one example of psychiatry's flight from science into fashion, there have been others, all well documented. But the enduring departure from biology, known as "romantic psychiatry" (or "psychsocial") emphasizes one's personal history and social environment. Do you think there is a place for this in therapy or not?
The way I see it, neurologists treated madness first, neurosyphilis being the leading cause of mental illness at the turn of the century. Psychiatry, which started out all neurological steered itself toward the money, ie Woody Allen's inner journey on the couch. Neurologists wanted no part of that, after all neurosyphyilis shows up under the microscope, neurosis does not.
Am I boring you? I'm boring myself. Not even sure what I'm talking about at this point, but rest assured it's an age-old question my friend. Is there such a thing as a mind (psyche)? Can we ever know the answer to that? The prudent clinician keeps one foot in the biology camp and the other in the psychosocial camp, aka the "biopsychosocial model". IMHO it seems to me that it's always us crazies who insist on the dogmatic either/or position.
trouble
> Psychiatry: "The branch of medicine concerned with the study, treatment and prevention of disorders of the mind, including psychosis and neurosis, emotional maladjustments, etc."
>
> Now Ive got to ask you something. Just what exactly is a "disorder of the mind?" Why are we all being told depression is a medical problem? And that our "brain changes when we develop mental illnes?" But the focus with psychiatry is on the outward behaviors dealing with the "mind." I just dont get it. Seems stupid to me. When the problem isnt the "mind" its your brain and nervous system. All thoughts, feelings, moods and emotions originate from your brain, which is a tangible, physical, bodily organ. The brain is nerve tissue.
>
> Now let me give you the Webster's dictionary definition of Neurology.
>
> Neurology: "The branch of medicine dealing with the nervous system, its structure, and its diseases."
>
> LOL Now if all thoughts, moods, feelings, etc. originate with the brain, which is a major part of the nervous system, and depression is a disease of the brain to be treated with medication, WHY is it that mental illness is not treated by Neurology? Instead of psychiatry. Seems to me that Psychiatry is kind of stupid...focused more on the outward behaviors of people, when the real problem is diseased brains and nervous systems. This would be like a microbiologist trying to study AIDS without a microscope and only being allowed to study AIDS by going with what they can see with the naked eyeball, looking and talking to the AIDS victim.
>
> I have a problem with the usual mental health community because I feel that they are way off in left field, on a wild tangent studying psychology things, when the real problem is Neurological disease.
>
> Maybe this is the reason why I do not relate to the typical, usual mental health spiel. Because I can see thru it all and realize what BS it is.
>
> Old School
poster:trouble
thread:18721
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20020223/msgs/18773.html