Thank you, psychiatrists and the DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders)! Your arbitrary and unscientific medicalizing of immoral behaviors has brought us to this point. Catholic archbishops can rationalize and excuse the repeated sexual molestation of innocent children as a “mental illness,” when it is just plain bad behavior. Jodi Arias can dream up all kinds of irrational excuses for her bad behavior and blame it on PTSD.
This madness must stop. And by madness I mean the behavior of the American Psychiatric Association and their cohorts in crime, Big Pharma.
Pedophilia and murder are not the result of mental illnesses. They are immoral behaviors. Period. The rationalizing and excuse making to avoid accountability are also immoral behaviors — what I call traits of a “Dominator” personality in Pack Leader Psychology.
Psychiatrists have for the past 50 years been waging a PR campaign to convince the public, the federal government and anyone who will listen that there are hundreds of “mental disorders” out there all caused by chemical imbalances in the brain. (A must read for great info on this subject is the excellent book “Anatomy of an Epidemic” by Robert Whitaker.)
There has never been any scientifically valid or repeatable study proving that an organically caused brain chemical imbalance causes “mental illnesses,” such as pedophilia, personality disorders, depression, anxiety, schizophrenia, or OCD.
Psychiatrists and Big Pharma gain financially, though, when they can convince the public that there is a chemical imbalance that must be treated with a magic pill. Sadly, these pills actually CAUSE more mental illness than they cure. (Again, see “Anatomy of an Epidemic” for a shocking expose of the decades-long collusion between MDs and Big Pharma to medicalize human behavior at the expense of millions of over-medicated and permanently harmed patients.)
This false labeling of “mental illnesses” also allows people to get off the hook for their immoral behavior: “Oh, he can’t help himself, he’s mentally ill.”
I write a lot about accountability in Pack Leader Psychology, explaining that “Pack Leaders” above all take responsibility for their behavior and act in the best interests of “the pack,” not to manipulate and control others to gain approval or work a personal agenda.
Let’s stop medicalizing and labeling what are poor behavioral choices as mental illnesses. This only allows bad behavior to continue and subverts the moral character of our society.