Sir, – I would like to congratulate Dr Ciarán Crummey for a very thought-provoking article (“Psychiatric diagnosis not scientific but subjective”, Opinion Analysis, August 30th). He raises a number of interesting points.
He points out quite rightly that “psychiatric diagnoses are based on the subjective interpretation of behaviour by third parties”. These diagnoses usually come about through a psychiatrist asking a series of questions of someone who is experiencing mental distress. If enough boxes are “ticked”, a diagnosis is then applied to the person and a course of treatment, usually medication, is then prescribed. Blood tests may be taken and the person may undergo a physical examination, but this is to check that the person is healthy from a physical point of view.
The person is then seen as a “faulty object”, as Dr Crummey points out. A diagnosis can have a very dehumanising effect on someone, leaving aside the stigma associated with it. The person tends to believe what these “experts” are saying.
Like Dr Crummey, I believe I am one of the lucky ones. I was given a diagnosis of manic depression and released from psychiatric hospital two weeks before my 21st birthday and told I would have to take lithium for the rest of my life or else I would be continuously at the mercy of my violent mood swings.
I overcame such a diagnosis with the help of a rare breed of psychiatrist, one who was prepared to listen to me and treat me as a human being, not as a chemical imbalance requiring either the red or blue pill. That was Prof Ivor Browne. I have been free of medication for 19 years now and love life. – Yours, etc,