The Psychoses (was Re: ...muck...)

Carrol Cox cbcox at ilstu.edu
Sun Feb 6 11:06:47 PST 2000


Miles Jackson wrote:


> Just a note on this: nobody has "psychoses" anymore. It's not in the
> DSM-IV; it's considered an obsolete term by most practicing clinicians
> nowadays (kinda like "melancholy" or "hysteria").

This is fundamental. A person who speaks of psychoses is not an interesting person to talk to. Psychiatrists do speak of "psychotic *symptoms*," and just in the last few years some more promising "anti-psychotic" medications have been developed. They have also discovered that some anti-psychotic medications are effective treatment for sufferers from bipolar affective disorder. Incidentally, the reason between 90% and 95% of all victims of schizophrenia smoke is that nicotine is powerfully effective in quieting the voices. I was astotounded last summer when a friend who suffers from schizophrenia was able to stop smoking.

And also, just in the last year researchers have discovered a difference in gross brain anatomy (difference in size in one small part of the brain) in those suffering from schizophrenia. They do not know yet, however, whether it is a cause or an effect of schizophrenia.

The use of the terms "hysteria," "neurosis," and "melancholia" are fairly good signs of intellectual fraud.

Carrol


> If a clinician
> wants to get reimbursed by HMOs for their work, they do not diagnose
> a person with a "psychotic condition". --Whether this is a good thing
> or a bad thing depends mostly on what you think of psychodynamic theory.
>
> Miles



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