From Today's Los Angeles Times:
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Psychiatry's sick compulsion: turning weaknesses into diseases
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By Irwin Savodnik
Irwin Savodnik is a psychiatrist and philosopher who teaches at UCLA.
January 1 2006
IT'S JAN. 1. Past time to get your inoculation against seasonal affective
disorder, or SAD #8212; at least according to the American Psychiatric Assn. As
Americans rush to return Christmas junk, bumping into each other in Macy's and
Best Buy, the psychiatric association ponders its latest iteration of feeling
bad for the holidays. And what is the association selling? Mental illness. With
its panoply of major depression, dysthymic disorder, bipolar disorder and
generalized anxiety disorder, the association is waving its Calvinist flag to
remind everyone that amid all the celebration, all the festivities, all the
exuberance, many people will "come down with" or "contract" or "develop" some
variation of depressive illness.
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The complete article can be viewed at:
The Los Angeles Times. The gist of the article is that the American Psychiatric Association has been over the years developing many more named and classified illnesses as psychiatric conditions than probably it should. Anyway, that is this psychiatrist's opinion. I wonder what Shrinkette or others in the profession think about this.
Can't make and keep a list of New Years resolutions? Looking forward to paying your holiday bills? Feeling a bit depressed? Well, it is January 1st and time to develop SAD (8212), Seasonal Affective Disorder, that is. Happy New Year! ..Maurice.
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