Psychiatry’s billing bible DSM-5 (The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, revision 5) released in May, 2013, and its current update DSM-5-TR (Text Revision of 2022) are the latest versions of the standard handbook of “mental illnesses” as determined by the American Psychiatric Association (APA).
The DSM purports to diagnose abnormal human behavior, although failing to define what is normal. In fact, it is not possible to define normal human behavior by using the DSM, since there are no clinical tests for these conditions for which a range of results could be specified as either normal or abnormal in the general population of society. Diagnosis with the DSM is purely an opinion, usually a psychiatrist’s opinion of something they do not like. This led the late Dr. Thomas Szasz (co-founder of CCHR) to say, “If we recognize that ‘mental illness’ is a metaphor for disapproved thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, we are compelled to recognize as well that the primary function of Psychiatry is to control thought, mood, and behavior.”
Normal: Generally free from impairment; Within a range considered safe, healthy, or optimal; Routine; A standard, model or pattern regarded as typical for a specific group or situation.
[From Latin norm?lis “forming a right angle;” from norma “carpenter’s square” + -?lis “related to”.]
No psychiatrist has succeeded in defining abnormal or normal behavior in a precise and workable way. This is one reason we say that psychiatry is not workable. In addition, any form of etiology (the cause or origin of disease) is missing from the DSM.
How then can we get to a definition of normal human behavior? This is not a simple assignment. But we can approach it in a different way. We can ask, “What is the Ideal of Human Behavior?”
An Ideal might be described this way: The absence of unwanted mental, physical and spiritual conditions; Sane, ethical and responsible behavior as a well-adjusted, functioning and productive contributor to society. OK, we get that this is also difficult to enumerate.
Perhaps we should examine another factor that leads to fraudulent DSM diagnoses. The proliferation of psychiatric diagnoses is exceedingly profitable for the vested interests of the psychiatric industry.
What is a “vested interest?”
Here are some definitions of a vested interest:
— enjoying benefits from an existing economic or political privilege
— a special concern or stake in maintaining or influencing an arrangement especially for selfish ends or to protect one’s money, power, or reputation
— cooperating or competing in pursuing selfish goals for personal gain and exerting a controlling influence to maintain such.
Could it be that psychiatric vested interests are engaged in such activities because of an abiding fear of losing their livelihood should there appear to be more normal people than abnormal?
Baldly, the psychiatric profession has a profit interest in ensuring that society is focused on the abnormal rather than the normal, and in ensuring that psychiatric “treatments” worsen these conditions in order to preserve and expand the patient base.
Coming up with new lists of behaviors and new “disorders” is the bedrock of the multi-billion dollar psychiatric industry. It’s how they get paid. Remember, no psychiatric label, no billing insurance. No psychiatric label, no drug prescribed. The psychiatric labels are backed by corporate interests, not medicine, and not science.
The psychiatric industry must be deprived of their unearned billions and the world made safe for both the normal and the abnormal (whoever and whatever they are) to pursue an effective route to an Ideal of Human Behavior.
Reference
The Hidden Horrors of Psychiatry by C.F. van der Horst (Per Veritatem Vis Foundation, 2022)
