How Non-Diagnostic Listening Led to a Rapid “Recovery” from Paranoid Schizophrenia: What is Wrong with Psychiatry?

Abstract

An experimental interview with a young woman diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia led to her rapid recovery. This incident and questions raised about psychiatric practices suggest that something is seriously wrong with psychiatry. It lacks insight into its own behavior, invalidates constructive criticism, avoids the kind of selfexamination it urges on “patients,” shows little interest in accounts of successes with “schizophrenic” individuals, erroneously lumps all the schizophrenias (plural) together in research studies, feels helpless and hopeless about schizophrenia, dismisses evidence that contradicts its inaccurate beliefs, and misrepresents what is known about “schizophrenia” to the public and to patients. The argument is put forward that research should begin to focus on the mind of the beholder. It is time for researchers to examine the cognitive processes, personality traits, and motives of “mental health” professionals who perceive schizophrenia in others and insist that schizophrenia is an incurable brain disease.