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> "Mad in America" is obviously not willing to make a fuss of things like bipolar where people will take their lithium for decades and bear the side-effects [..
by tcj_phx 10y ago
> "Mad in America" is obviously not willing to make a fuss of things like bipolar where people will take their lithium for decades and bear the side-effects [...]
The creation and promotion of "Bipolar" as a DSM disorder is covered in Anatomy of an Epidemic, Robert Whitaker's followup to Mad in America.
> [...] because the alternative is to go actually mad-crazy.
The whole point of Whitaker's Mad in America foundation is to change the paradigm of our approach to mental health. nstead of trying to find the right drug to make a symptom go away, it would be much more effective to figure out non-psychotropic-drug ways to help people function better.
- KermitCole 10y agoActually, speaking as an editor on "Mad in America,"I'd say that we would be interested in making a fuss about the long-term effects of lithium. We would welcome that and any other stories from the commenters posting here.
- thanatropism 10y agoErm, manic depression as distinct from schizophrenia was basically established by Emil Kraepelin in the 1880s. Dr. Whitaker could be going full Foucault, but as well established by Hollywood, you never go full Foucault.
- tcj_phx 10y ago> Erm, manic depression as distinct from schizophrenia was basically established by Emil Kraepelin in the 1880s. The physiological basis for scihzophrenia wasn't figured out and ignored until the 1970's. > Dr. Whitaker could be going full Foucault, but as well established by Hollywood, you never go full Foucault. Robert Whitaker is a journalist, not a doctor. He's sort of like the kid who points out that the emperor got swindled by his tailors. I like the reference to the quote from Tropic Thunder, but I'm not up to date on Foucault's contributions to philosophy.