Philip over at the Furious Seasons blog often says things that don’t sit well with “either side” — anti-psychiatry folks and pro-psychiatrists too. You see, there’s this undercurrent anti-psychiatry movement that’s been around for decades, every since doctors in the 1940s and 1950s routinely performed lobotomies (sometimes forced upon the person without their consent) to help “cure” mental illness (as it was understood back then). Leaving a large group of vegetables in their wake.

Since those procedures have long since stopped, the profession of psychiatry has come under criticism for other things, such as forced treatment, its cozy relationship with pharmaceutical companies, and its continuing endorsement of radical procedures such as electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). When people feel strongly about something, they often see things in extremes rather than shades of gray.

We live in a complex and sometimes confusing world, however, and the extremes are rarely informative. Black and white make for good silhouettes, but they don’t make for such a good painting or photograph. And for most of us, life is more like a rich painting rather than a bleak, black and white silhouette.

Philip is one of those individuals, from reading his entries, that seems to understand the richness of life and complexity of the issues most of us face in our daily lives. Yes, there are evils propagated by virtually all professions. But those evils are the exception, not the rule. Medications don’t work for everyone, but neither does psychotherapy. We shouldn’t paint everyone into a corner (or a single type of treatment) based upon our own negative experiences with treatment.

So whether he meant to or not, he started an interesting conversation yesterday with this entry, directed toward the people who regularly comment in his blog, Notes For Anti-Psychiatrists…And Psychiatrists, Too! The 40+ comments are worth the read too.

Dr. John Grohol is the CEO and founder of Psych Central. He is an author, researcher and expert in mental health online, and has been writing about online behavior, mental health and psychology issues -- as well as the intersection of technology and human behavior -- since 1992. Dr. Grohol sits on the editorial board of the journal Cyberpsychology, Behavior and Social Networking and is a founding board member and treasurer of the Society for Participatory Medicine.

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    Last reviewed: By John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on 1 May 2008
    Published on PsychCentral.com. All rights reserved.