Speaking our minds as clinical psychologists

Abstract

A combination of international debates about psychiatric diagnosis, failure to find biomarkers to validate the ‘illness’ model, and emerging evidence on the role of trauma, abuse and social inequality in mental distress, is creating the possibility of fundamental change in mental health systems. However, despite the recent ‘Position Statement on Classification’, clinical psychologists have always had an ambivalent attitude to challenging psychiatric power and influence. This tension will be explored in relation to key areas of theory and practice.