Reading a paper surveying the history of #antipsychiatry, I notice the same defensive tone I found so off-putting in right-wing criticism of leftist political literature: lots of “ironic” quote marks and barely disguised disparaging comments that are borderline ad-hominem fallacies. The line of reasoning is defensive of psychiatry itself rather than curious about how critique might improve treatment for the individual. #psychiatry #mentalhealth
I understand #psychiatry has been persecuted for a long time, but there are good reasons for that, and defensive rebuttals like this just don’t do the discipline any favours. I also understand I am biased in favour of at least “new psychiatry” if not antipsychiatry, and I am happily learning about traditional psychiatry’s detractors from this attempt to discredit them.