Dr. Joel Paris on the State of Psychiatry
At the popular level, mental health is spoken of as if it's an exacting science, but what are medical experts telling us with increasing frequency?
"Although great progress has been made in research on the brain, the origins of mental illness remain a mystery ...
The DSM system lacks the data to define mental disorders in the way that physicians conceptualize medical illnesses. Diagnoses in medicine can also be vague, but psychiatry is far behind other specialties in grounding categories in measurements that are independent of clinical observation ...
No biological markers or tests exist for any diagnosis in psychiatry ...
Although progress in brain research has been rapid and impressive, its application to psychiatry has thus far been very limited. Brain scans are impressive (even if one keeps in mind that the colors are artificial), but all they tell you is that activity is different at different sites ...
The precise meaning of these changes is unclear, and none are specific to any diagnosis. We do not know enough about the brain, or about the mind, to develop a truly scientific classification, and it could be 50–100 years before we can even get close ...
We do not understand the etiology or the pathogenesis of severe mental disorders ...
Although psychopathology can be associated with changes in neurotransmitters, the theory that chemical imbalances cause mental disorders is too simple or plain wrong. Ultimately, it may be impossible to fully explain mental disorders as brain disorders ...
The neuroscience model attempts to reduce every twisted thought to a twisted molecule, but it devalues studying the mind on a mental level ...
The brain is the most complex structure known in the universe. There are more synapses in the brain than stars in the galaxy. This is a project for a century, not a decade, and its results may never provide a full explanation of mental illness." ~ Dr. Joel Paris, MD, Professor of Psychiatry, "The Intelligent Clinicians Guide to DSM-5"
We share these excerpts from Dr. Paris' book not to utterly undermine patient confidence in the help they receive from the psychiatric community, but to call attention to the truths that are buried beneath often unfounded conceptions of what medical science actually knows about the brain and what we call "mental health."
Accurate conceptions will make the field better, compel it to not be satisfied with surface-level descriptions (i.e. "chemical imbalance"), and to simply continue telling the truth about what it actually knows despite the virtually unlimited wealth being amassed by the pharmaceutical industry.
We applaud and affirm the good work being done in the field of psychiatry and research, and hold that wherever it discovers truth, there will be no conflict with biblical revelation if rightly held and understood.
"For the word of God is living and effective and sharper than any double-edged sword, penetrating as far as the separation of soul and spirit, joints and marrow. It is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart." Hebrews 4:12 (CSB)
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