[lbo-talk] Philip Mirowski - Social Physicist

Miles Jackson cqmv at pdx.edu
Fri Mar 5 10:02:38 PST 2010


Vincent Clarke wrote:
> So tell me then - what's with the increase in psychotropic drugs since the
> DSM came in (there was a great article done about this in the Counterpunch
> newsletter a while back by the anthropologist Eugenia Tsao - since its a
> very old issue I'll send you a copy if you drop me and e-mail off list)? The
> age of the DSM and the critique of classic psychiatry has been a veritable
> goldmine for big Pharma - cheers Foucault, I'm sure you meant well...
>
Cum hoc ergo propter hoc, baby!


> Anyway, Milgram's experiment means almost nothing - it assumes that
> psychiatrists have access to the minds of sections of the population who
> never enter psychiatric asylums... how could they? They were guessing, plain
> and simple. Now, if you put a SINGLE patient in front of them they might
> have a better time of it, no?
Actually, no, they don't. Another example: clinicians' predictions of dangerous/violent behavior in clients on discharge from a mental hospital is no more accurate than flipping a coin. Really, they're just pulling these predictions out of their asses. You want to know who's going to be violent in 5 years? Ignore clinicians and simply evaluate the past history of violent behavior. You won't be 100% correct, but you'll do better than the clinicians using their purportedly keen psychological insight.

Miles



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