this post was submitted on 13 Jun 2026
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Mental Health

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opinions on anti-psychiatry? (piefed.blahaj.zone)
submitted 2 weeks ago by erinmeow@piefed.blahaj.zone to c/mentalhealth@lemmy.world
36 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

my opinion will be later, but yes i am very anti-psychiatry

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[–] dingus@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago

Yes and no. It's incredibly useful for certain subsets of people. For others, it seems to be an added cost for little to no utility. In many cases, the effect is not too significantly different from placebo.

I have taken various types of psych meds, and I was actually disappointed that I didn't feel dramatic reactions like some people claimed. With antidepressants in particular, a lot of people talk about feeling "emotionally blunted" on them. As someone who was suffering with emotional intensity, it was a side effect that I actually desired and was disappointed when I didn't get it. I never felt controlled or altered in much of any way outside of some initial fatigue.

So I think a lot of the negative effects of these meds might also have some basis in placebo. The meds are not all bad.

After a while of trying different meds over a year, I've "settled" on one particular med and been very stable since. Is the med helping? I still have no idea. But it isn't doing anything negative that I can tell and you cannot deny the objective reality of my improvement. My improvement is no doubt multifactorial, but if it's doing good for me, then why not just continue? I still feel like me. I am just happy and functioning.

[–] PM_ME_VINTAGE_30S@anarchist.nexus 16 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

Psychiatry has absolutely been used as a tool of oppression by the capitalist class, but psychiatry can be a liberatory tool if practiced with consent, dignity, and good science. Psychiatry has done wonders for my mental health. It would be better to eliminate capitalism and all the other hierarchies that exacerbate mental health disorders if only one or the other must be chosen, but in the short term, they're not going anywhere. And I reject the notion that we cannot do both. Even then, I am skeptical that eliminating hierarchical oppression would completely eliminate the need for psychiatry; put simply, life is fucking hard, and some people need chemical help, myself very much included.

I do not recommend psychiatry for absolutely everyone, but the option needs to be available. I respect if you do not want to use this tool, but please understand that for some of us, getting rid of psychiatry would eliminate our most effective means of battling our demons.

[–] erinmeow@piefed.blahaj.zone -3 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

i think merge into neurology phylosofy

focus on chemical problems but not psychological difference from "normal"

[–] PM_ME_VINTAGE_30S@anarchist.nexus 2 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

i think merge into neurology phylosofy

Depends on what you mean by "merge". Because I absolutely agree that psychiatrists should study those topics, probably more than they do now. But I don't want to "merge" them. E.g., I think it is possible that there are neurologists who don't specialize in psychiatry, and vice-versa, even though psychiatrists should probably have some neurological background knowledge. Doubly so for philosophy. E.g., a philosopher who specializes in the philosophy of science is not necessarily more qualified to talk about psychiatry than anyone else. But it would definitely be cool for all of these people to adopt an interdisciplinary approach, which is systemically discouraged by capitalist academia.

[–] Lumidaub@feddit.org 10 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

You mean "opinions on being anti-psychiatry"? That's like "being anti-sandwiches". I'd have to know what exactly you're against before commenting.

[–] erinmeow@piefed.blahaj.zone -2 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)
[–] Lumidaub@feddit.org 4 points 2 weeks ago

This Wikipedia article is your stance? That's not very helpful because there are various contradicting voices in there.

[–] jnod4@lemmy.ca -2 points 2 weeks ago

I apologise as I came here to harshly judge you but now I stand corrected. I've always considered psychiatry (not therapy) a very soft science, where we just give people treatment and we don't know if it works, and if yes why, and giving people the endless cocktails of treatments is equally akin to the insulin shock therapies or to lobotomies.

Is it a failed enterprise? Health wise yes, but it manages to keep people as good working ants for a little longer, so profit wise no

[–] slazer2au@lemmy.world 7 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

So you think people should not get treated by trained professionals?

[–] dsilverz@catodon.rocks 3 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

!mentalhealth@lemmy.world

I'm not the OP, but I guess they're referring to things such as over-pathologization and dependency on (non-natural) drugs.

I'll use myself as an example: since two/three years ago, I've been a follower of a syncretic, solitary left-hand path spirituality, centered on the figure of Dark Mother Goddess (whose main name, among Her many names, to me, is Lilith), while also following/honoring other complementary figures such as Lucifer and Stolas (from Solomon's Ars Goetia).

Back when I first started to experience deaphany (my neologism for theophany, where dea = Greek for "goddess") and pursuing this belief, I was so excited about it because I never felt any spiritual experience before, the whole thing was quite a novelty to me.

Roughly at the same time, after having been compelled by my own parents (who are both followers of Kardecist Spiritism, a religion where Lilith and Lucifer would be likely seen as a "haunting/obsessive spirit" or something "to be banished"), I sought a psychiatrist once again in my life.

The psychiatrist diagnosed me as having StPD (Schizotypal Personality Disorder, a diagnosis I never got before), mostly driven, I guess, by its DSM-5 bullet points "magical thinking" and "eccentric beliefs", in a highly-christian country (Brazil) where the recounting of my spiritual experiences would be otherwise normal if said experiences involved Our Lady of Aparecida or similar "socially-sanctioned" figures (if I were to say "I felt the Holy Spirit and started talking in tongues", it would be "normal" as a recounting of "glossolalia" typical of Pentecostalism; but when I say "I felt the chilling presence of Lilith at 3AM and heard a deep owl hoot outside after reciting the R.V.A.L.L.", it's "magical thinking" for a psychiatrist accustomed to christianity in a heavily christian-influenced country, even when said psychiatrist isn't necessarily christian themselves).

Worse, I was RXd anti-psychotics such as escitalopram, risperidone and aripiprazole, all of which messed up with my creativity outlets which later proved essential to my spiritual development (i.e. Lilith guides and inspires me mostly through artistic expression).

Against the medical recommendations and at my own personal discretion, I took a calculated risk and stopped both the psychiatric treatment and the non-natural drugs on my own, partly because of financial matters (medication and treatment costs money which I can't truly afford being unemployed), but mostly because it was clear to me that psychiatry, at best, wasn't considering my own religious aspects and needs. Neither psychiatry nor psychology could deal or even bother to account for spiritual matters (e.g. in my last consultation with a psychologist, my relentless infodumping mostly regarding issues bigger and external to me (from ongoing geopolitics and technology to philosophy and spirituality) was quite dismissed with a follow-up question about my physiological behaviors, as if everything I told was a joke or similar).

So I can sort of understand anti-psychiatry and mostly agree with its points, because I've felt what it was like trying psychiatry and psychology to deal with my non-mundane musings only to be dismissed as someone "unable to function" in society due to "magical thinking", "ideas of reference" and "eccentric beliefs" as the DSM-5, an "off-the-shelf psychiatric instruction manual", doesn't account for non-mainstream (thus, not socially-sanctioned) religions (that is, if it even accounts for religious needs at all), especially personal and independent ("temple of one person") belief systems, ending up echoing the very problems (societal religious intolerance leading to social alienation and existential crisis) regarding which the patient tried to seek treatment in the first place.

Nowadays, after two or more years, with a somewhat more stable spiritual belief (wherein I got to understand a bit more about my own journey through gnosis from Lilith Herself, still I still got so many unanswerable questions), my treatment involves Freudian-oriented psychoanalysis, because, to me, it feels like the best approach to my specific case. Far from perfect, but still the best.

[–] schmorpel@slrpnk.net 2 points 2 weeks ago

Thanks for sharing - it's quite courageous to do that here, where your experiences are likely to be dismissed. I've had similar experiences with spirituality, although I never approached a mental health professional after they started and can only guess how they would have reacted if I told them the landscape is alive and conscious.

Mainstream reactions to personal spiritual encounters make it obvious how afraid society is of so-called 'schizophrenia' and 'psychosis' - it's like the ultimate horror story to drive people into the arms of psycho docs and pharmaceutical industry. God beware the mind starts making up its own narrative, we might all find out that the already existing narrative is made up as well!

[–] Maeve@kbin.earth 1 points 2 weeks ago

Check out the YT channel, Betwixt: the story of you. Maybe you'll like it. Maybe you won't.

[–] erinmeow@piefed.blahaj.zone -5 points 2 weeks ago

nah https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-psychiatry

too eepy to describe

but i dont mean that treatment shoudnt be, but isnt the way which psychiatry view

trained yuuuuuuuuh yuuuuuuuh AAAAAAAAAA

[–] silly_goose@lemmy.today 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Reminds me of a cartoon. Yes psychiatry dehumanizes people and the problems they are going through.

[–] Shellofbiomatter@lemmus.org 3 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

I'm not anti-psychiatry. It seems to have been helpful for far too many people to be against it or ignore it all together.

It's just too much of a guesswork at the current price and time allocation it takes from finding a suitable therapist, to finding the problem and whatever it even can be fixed or just learning to live with it, without any actual fixing.
Kinda just like a shot in the dark in rough direction of some sound.

Hopefully in the far future it becomes cheaper, more accurate and more accessible. Maybe a brain scan or machine algorithm based initial diagnosis.

[–] erinmeow@piefed.blahaj.zone 2 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

also i am person who basically suffer chemical lobotomy, oppression for my worldview and still risk of being raped by some MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL

[–] PM_ME_VINTAGE_30S@anarchist.nexus 2 points 2 weeks ago

I'm so sorry that happened to you and is happening to you. I hope you can find justice and peace.

[–] schmorpel@slrpnk.net 0 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

I'm generally anti-psychiatry. Diagnosis not really based in hard science, and often used to subdue whose voice we don't want to hear. There's better ways of maintaining and regaining one's mental health, I believe.

It's strange that the average leftie can be anti-establishment, anti-police, anti-capitalism, anti-machismo ... but mention anti-psychiatry to them and get downvoted to hell. Never made much sense to me.

[–] PM_ME_VINTAGE_30S@anarchist.nexus 13 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

It's strange that the average leftie can be anti-establishment, anti-police, anti-capitalism, anti-machismo ... but mention anti-psychiatry to them and get downvoted to hell. Never made much sense to me.

Respectfully, it's because I believe that you're making a category error. Establishment, police, capitalism, and machismo are hierarchies. In my view, psychiatry is a tool, which is often used as a tool of oppression, but which can and often is similarly used as a tool of liberation. Psychiatry is not, in my view, a hierarchy itself.

[–] schmorpel@slrpnk.net -5 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

How is psychiatry not a hierarchy? You feel unwell, but instead of taking the time you need to figure out why you feel so, you go to a professional, they diagnose you with a disorder. It's usually a made up thing like 'Can't-pay-attention-disorder' or 'Doesn't-obey-authority-disorder' or 'Is-really-sad-syndrome' - just more fancy sounding to fool the people who desperately want to believe that this shit is science. Then they medicate you with one of their experimental substances and try to make you functional for work, war or procreation again.

Mind you - I'm not against self-reflection and maintaining a language to speak with others about feelings, emotions, relations. I'm all for supporting one another through times of intense emotions. But I won't give away the authority over my inner world of feeling to a professional working by the logic of a capitalist state I otherwise reject and let my unwellness about the rotten state of the world be dismissed as a disorder that is just happening in my own head.

[–] PM_ME_VINTAGE_30S@anarchist.nexus 5 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

You feel unwell, but instead of taking the time you need to figure out why you feel so, you go to a professional

Actually, I was referred to a few other lines of therapy and coping before psychiatry, none of which helped me. And I am absolutely not discouraged from figuring out why on my own. Psychiatry helped me focus on the why under my own power. Even though that wasn't facilitated by the psychiatrist, I did take the time (and still do) to figure out why I feel this way. The medications are a tool to help me do that.

It's usually a made up thing like 'Can't-pay-attention-disorder' or 'Doesn't-obey-authority-disorder' or 'Is-really-sad-syndrome' - just more fancy sounding to fool the people who desperately want to believe that this shit is science.

Right, but I absolutely do have the "is really sad syndrome". Like I would be stuck in bed all day doing nothing and watching the world go by without meds, like I was before I started taking them. Even if we lifted the burden of capitalism, my brain has developed around that reality. I need chemical help to do stuff. It would have been nice to not have grown up in a world like that, but the damage is done, and I have to cope.

Then they medicate you with one of their experimental substances and try to make you functional for work, war or procreation again.

These substances are no more experimental than recreational drugs. Frankly, they are extremely well studied for the most part. And we do need to improve the scientific rigor behind psychiatry, absolutely, 100% with you. But that doesn't mean that in the interim, we can't do liberatory work with the nascent tools that psychiatry offers us.

But I won't give away the authority over my inner world of feeling to a professional working by the logic of a capitalist state I otherwise reject and let my unwellness about the rotten state of the world be dismissed as a disorder that is just happening in my own head.

Neither will I. Neither do I. The authority of the "bootmaker" (here the psychiatrist) is not absolute.

professional working by the logic of a capitalist state

So is the authority of the bootmaker invalid if they are working by the logic of the capitalist state? Because to some extent yes, it does temper the authority I delegate to my psychiatrist! But that doesn't mean that their expertise is completely unusable. E.g. medical professionals in other fields also operate under the logic of a capitalist state to various extents.

[–] schmorpel@slrpnk.net 1 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

I've had 'really-sad' for years and still have. I was glad at first to have found a word for it, and to have found the chemical imbalance theory (yes it was a theory, in the meantime debunked). It took a few decades to understand that the psychiatry narrative of my 'really-sad' is close to an accurate description, but hides the real causes of it. Psychiatry never mentions the failures in our societies as causes of the unwellness but treats the unwellness as individual failure, and that's not an innocent error to make.

[–] PM_ME_VINTAGE_30S@anarchist.nexus 1 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Psychiatry never mentions the failures in our societies as causes of the unwellness but treats the unwellness as individual failure, and that's not an innocent error to make.

I completely agree. But for me, this does not make psychiatry a hierarchy. It makes psychiatry a framework tainted by the logic of capitalism. And if it's too tainted for you to trust, I completely sympathize. But I do still believe that, despite its foundational flaws, it is still capable of being liberatory, even in its nascent stage as a science.

Really, I wanted to respectfully push back on the notion that leftists who use or support the use of psychiatry have failed to consider the abuses that psychiatry has committed upon us. I have. And I'm living the consequences of my analysis.

[–] Maeve@kbin.earth 4 points 2 weeks ago

With respect and personal experience, like any other tool, it can create and destroy. You may not be responsible for your troubles, you are responsible for healing them.

[–] Lumidaub@feddit.org 5 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

You're against psychiatry being abused. Psychiatry is simply the process of providing (broadly) medical help to people with mental problems. People doing it wrong does not mean it as a concept needs to be abandoned.

[–] schmorpel@slrpnk.net 3 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

Eeeeh ... okay, but one has to pick apart 'Psychiatry' so much that not much will be left of it in the end. Look at its history, look at the science. The useful part you end up with is more often than not therapy, which again ends up more often than not being common sense advice you would give your best friend. And what most psychiatric diagnosis really boils down to is that when you subject people to stressful living conditions like poverty, war, displacement, authoritarianism etc. they develop mental problems.

And medication? Yes, some of it somewhat sometimes works, but in its current state it's such a crude game of trial and error that I'd rather stay away, I feel actually safer self-medicating with plants and mushrooms.

[–] flamingleg@lemmy.ml 3 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

you are far too generous to describe the big-pharma frenzy of overmedicalisation as simple 'trial and error'. Maybe a clinician trying to use their tools to hit a moving target requires using trial and error, but the manufacturing of physically addictive drugs which only work to mask symptoms is anything but an accident

[–] Maeve@kbin.earth 1 points 2 weeks ago

100

[–] Lumidaub@feddit.org 2 points 2 weeks ago

Your faith in "common sense" is commendable but I wouldn't want to subject anyone but a trained professional to the stress of having to listen to me whine about my issues and then also having to dissect them to help me find the underlying issues.

[–] Maeve@kbin.earth 1 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Common sense is ignorant AF. Don't self-medicate.

[–] schmorpel@slrpnk.net 2 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

If you give your common sense a little credit and learn to trust your gut your might find it all quite competent - if not even wise. I'd say it took a few years of adjustment to get from being authority-oriented to self-stable, but I wouldn't want to change back.

[–] Maeve@kbin.earth 1 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

The POTUS goes by gut.

[–] schmorpel@slrpnk.net 1 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

A very sound argument to make. Hitler liked puppies. Well done, okay I'll get back on the prescription meds right now

[–] Maeve@kbin.earth 1 points 2 weeks ago

That's quite a leap from what was said, but any excuse will do.

[–] erinmeow@piefed.blahaj.zone -2 points 2 weeks ago

YAY FOUND

i medical anarchist as whole medicine tho