Overanalysing people's psyche

[Shimmy]

I had this conversation with a friend the other day, we agreed that in modern day society there is way too much labeling of a persons psyche. On the one hand, rather innocently, you've got Jungian psychology and Socionics etc. But more importantly, and the subject of this thread, are psychiatric diagnoses.

I started another thread where you can express your own personal experiences, it bears relevance so please read the OP. This thread however, is more about the general idea of psychiatric diagnoses.

I'm trying to keep both ends of the argument positive.

here's the conundrum:

Arguments concerning more psychiatric diagnoses.

If you are able to distinguish a lot of psychiatric conditions you can research and treat these conditions more specific and probably better, leading to a better quality of life for people who have these conditions. But on the other hand, by identifying a lot of psychiatric conditions you run the risk of placing people in boxes, and at least for some conditions this can make it more likely for the condition to develop (if people are constantly identified as something they will inevitability grow in that direction.)

Arguments concerning less psychiatric diagnoses.

If you don't distinguish a lot of psychiatric conditions some people will go undiagnosed with the risk of suffering heavily from whatever condition they have. But on the other hand, by not worrying about psychiatric conditions too much you can safe people from getting a label and keep them running in society on a more regular basis. With the result of those people not self-reflecting as dysfunctional that much, meaning they are less likely to get into a negative spiral.

Thoughts?!

 

[Little_Sticks]

Here. This is worth watching if you have the time (and you do have the time so watch it ).

The Century of the Self 1/4 | Powermongering | Veoh

There are four parts. Each part is an hour long, but very interesting. You get to know how psychology and psychiatry all got started as a science and what the motivations were for starting it. In essence, what it comes down to is that psychology and psychiatry is mostly a giant guess on human relations and a way to control people and keep order, outside of the more serious and apparent psychiatric problems, such as schizophrenia.

 

[Chloe]

Here. This is worth watching if you have the time (and you do have the time so watch it ).

The Century of the Self 1/4 | Powermongering | Veoh

There are four parts. Each part is an hour long, but very interesting. You get to know how psychology and psychiatry all got started as a science and what the motivations were for starting it. In essence, what it comes down to is that psychology and psychiatry is mostly a giant guess on human relations and a way to control people and keep order, outside of the more serious and apparent psychiatric problems, such as schizophrenia.

Veoh is no longer available.

i dont know why they keep blocking stuff for some countries on youtube etc all the time...:steam:

 

[Little_Sticks]

You could always try a proxy. It's also on piratebay Adam Curtis - The century of the self - BBC (download torrent) - TPB (I hope it's not a problem linking this since it is distributed across youtube and veoh so it's probably technically not illegal to download )

 

[Shimmy]

Here. This is worth watching if you have the time (and you do have the time so watch it ).

The Century of the Self 1/4 | Powermongering | Veoh

There are four parts. Each part is an hour long, but very interesting. You get to know how psychology and psychiatry all got started as a science and what the motivations were for starting it. In essence, what it comes down to is that psychology and psychiatry is mostly a giant guess on human relations and a way to control people and keep order, outside of the more serious and apparent psychiatric problems, such as schizophrenia.

Wow, thanks for that movie. I've got no time right now, but I bookmarked it and will watch it later this week. By the way, I agree with you on the whole keeping people in check thing. People are so different... who's to say what is the standard (normal) and what is different (abnormal) anyway. And yet I still feel I'd like to give my psyche a name and learn how to work with it in an optimal way. MBTI is one way to do this, psychiatry is merely another way of doing this.

 

[Spamtar]

Over-diagnosis and the search for the 'cure' can raise some problems. On the other hand, diagnosis of various mental/emotional, psychological and physical conditions can and does provide relief from the 'one size fits all' mandates so common in our modern and urbane societies.

 

[Lark]

Labels are a good servant and a bad master.

Like with most theory its a set of imperfect conceptualisations to reach a shared understanding, you have to start from somewhere and keep it under review, so long as that review process isnt neglected or abandoned and is genuine there's no harm.

This is dangerously close to the whole post-modern schtick which I hate, I think they began to lose the plot when they strayed into saying that there's no such thing as objective truth and it was all power struggles, even in the content or creation of basic words and language.

 

[6.4]

I'm sure it's got something to do with it being good business. It seems easy to exploit emotions and at the end of the day everyone is most interested in themselves