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A Manifesto for Mental HealthLabels are for Products, not People

A Manifesto for Mental Health: Labels are for Products, not People [The assumption or assertion that our distress is best understood merely as a symptom of diagnosable ‘illnesses’ is only one perspective. Instead, more appropriate systems for describing and defining people’s emotional problems are available. Traditional psychiatric diagnoses are arbitrary and invalid and do not map onto biological processes or describe real illnesses. They are also circular concepts, attempting to explain our behaviour, emotions and thoughts merely by labelling them as pathological. This reinforces a reductionist biological view of mental health and wellbeing and encourages negative attitudes, discrimination and the use of inappropriate medical treatments. Scientific and humane alternatives are needed, both for individual care planning and in the design and commissioning of servicesDesign and commissioning of services.] http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png

A Manifesto for Mental HealthLabels are for Products, not People

Kinderman, Peter
Springer Journals — Sep 23, 2019
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28 pages

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Publisher
Springer International Publishing
Copyright
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG, part of Springer Nature 2019
ISBN
978-3-030-24385-2
Pages
103 –131
DOI
10.1007/978-3-030-24386-9_5
Publisher site
See Chapter on Publisher Site

Abstract

[The assumption or assertion that our distress is best understood merely as a symptom of diagnosable ‘illnesses’ is only one perspective. Instead, more appropriate systems for describing and defining people’s emotional problems are available. Traditional psychiatric diagnoses are arbitrary and invalid and do not map onto biological processes or describe real illnesses. They are also circular concepts, attempting to explain our behaviour, emotions and thoughts merely by labelling them as pathological. This reinforces a reductionist biological view of mental health and wellbeing and encourages negative attitudes, discrimination and the use of inappropriate medical treatments. Scientific and humane alternatives are needed, both for individual care planning and in the design and commissioning of servicesDesign and commissioning of services.]

Published: Sep 23, 2019

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