Is shaming the 'pill-shamers' shutting down debate?

Leigh Emery

‘Whatever is begun in anger ends in shame.’- Benjamin Franklin

Keep taking the tablets. But
maybe keep quiet about it?

Over the past year I've immersed myself in Twitter. Like many I started tentatively, following the usual parade of news sites and comedians. It didn't take long though to realise the value of Twitter for discussing mental health. It’s packed to the rafters with campaigners, professionals and service-users. It’s also, famously, a place where people feel free to say more or less whatever they want. Put all these elements together and the result is a powerful (if dissonant) mix of voices in social media and in mental health.

Recently, some Twitter followers have turned their attention to several articles in the national press which critique the use of psychiatric medication. These articles, one by novelist Will Self, another by commentator Giles Fraser and a third by psychiatrist Joanna Moncrieff, broadly say the same thing: life’s ups and downs are being pathologised and psychiatric drugs are being wildly overused.

The DSM dust-up: Whingeing cranks, turf wars and epistemological disputes

Leigh Emery

Debates over psychiatric diagnosis:
an ideological smack-down?
Pic:  Battle Cry of Freedom
by James McPherson

On Sunday  the12th of May, The UK Observer ran a front-page article stating that the Division of Clinical Psychology (DCP), a subdivision of the British Psychological Society (BPS), was releasing a position statement calling for a ‘paradigm shift’ in mental health. The proposed shift was away from a view of mental health problems as illnesses with biological roots, and towards greater consideration of  psychological and social factors.

The DCP did its best to get the media interested and was rewarded with extensive coverage. The Observer and Guardian website included an online poll and other articles and commentaries that explored the debate in some depth.  The Daily Mail ran a piece the following day.  Lucy Johnstone and Richard Bentall, both Clinical Psychologists and critics of the ‘disease model’ of psychological distress, appeared on Radio 4 and Peter Kinderman, a former DCP Chair, was on telly in Canada.