The Cyclic Nature of Psychiatric Care

"Not only can things get better, but they've also been better. Many smart, good people have looked at their time's ways of dealing with mental distress and found a superior way. Psychiatry isn't a linear field of medicine. Rather, it's been marked by periods of reform and humanity, alternating with periods of reductive thinking and scant resources. It's essential to understand this cyclic movement. Right now I'd say we're somewhere between the two."

"Before elaborating on this, let me share another query I get: How can I reveal the things about myself that I do-and, in writing? How do I dare admit that in my life I experience episodes of psychosis, or, as I call them, non-consensus states? I think the questions connect. Back in the 1980s, when medicine embraced biological-brain disease as the root of psychiatric distress, the medical community argued a disease model of mental problems-the "it's a disease like any other" model-would reduce stigma."

"Many people have confessed to me that they've hallucinated-some in whispers that felt sacramentally serious. That's here in the culture that invented the abbreviation "TMI." Our TikTokers discuss everything from affairs to, er, mishaps involving sanitary products. Is it so much worse to admit that I sometimes hear birds speaking? If it is, so be it. Things can only get better when we accept as a culture tha"

Psychiatry has fluctuated historically between humane reform and reductive, under-resourced models. Improvements have occurred when practitioners questioned prevailing methods and adopted superior approaches. A biological disease model gained prominence in the 1980s with promises of reducing stigma. Many people experience a range of mental states, including hallucinations and voice-hearing, and cultural conversation about private experiences has expanded. The writer acknowledges personal episodes of psychosis, labeling them non-consensus states, and connects personal disclosure to broader questions about how society understands and responds to mental distress. Cultural acceptance can enable better care and reduced stigma.

Read at Psychology Today