Mental illness denial

Last updated

Mental illness denial or mental disorder denial is a form of denialism in which a person denies the existence of mental disorders. [1] Both serious analysts [2] [3] and pseudoscientific movements [1] question the existence of certain disorders.

Contents

A minority of professional researchers see disorders such as depression from a sociocultural perspective and argue that solutions should be sought through fixing a dysfunction in the society, not in the person's brain. [3]

Insight

In psychiatry, insight is the ability of an individual to understand their mental health, [4] and anosognosia is the lack of awareness of a mental health condition. [5]

Certain psychological analysts argue this denialism is a coping mechanism usually fueled by narcissistic injury. [6] According to Elyn Saks, probing patient's denial may lead to better ways to help them overcome their denial and provide insight into other issues. [6] Major reasons for denial are narcissistic injury and denialism. [6] In denialism, a person tries to deny psychologically uncomfortable truth and tries to rationalize it. [6] This urge for denialism is fueled further by narcissistic injury. [6] Narcissism gets injured when a person feels vulnerable (or weak or overwhelmed) for some reason like mental illness. [6]

Scholarly criticism of psychiatric diagnosis

Scholars have criticized mental health diagnoses as arbitrary. [7] According to Thomas Szasz, mental illness is a social construct. He views psychiatry as a social control and mechanism for political oppression. [8] Szasz wrote a book on the subject in 1961, The Myth of Mental Illness . [9]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 Novella, Steven (24 January 2018). "Mental Illness Denial". ScienceBasedMedicine.org. Retrieved 4 November 2021.
  2. ↑ "'Depression' Is a Symptom, Not a Disorder". opmed.doximity.com. Retrieved 2021-12-13.
  3. 1 2 Escalante, Alison. "Researchers Doubt That Certain Mental Disorders Are Disorders At All". Forbes. Retrieved 2021-12-13.
  4. ↑ Marková, Ivana (2005). Insight in psychiatry. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN   0-511-14045-2. OCLC   63814379.
  5. ↑ Moro, Valentina; Pernigo, Simone; Zapparoli, Paola; Cordioli, Zeno; Aglioti, Salvatore M. (2011). "Phenomenology and neural correlates of implicit and emergent motor awareness in patients with anosognosia for hemiplegia". Behavioural Brain Research. 225 (1): 259–269. doi:10.1016/j.bbr.2011.07.010. PMID   21777624. S2CID   8389272.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Saks, Elyn R. "Some thoughts on denial of mental illness." American Journal of Psychiatry 166.9 (2009): 972-973. Web. 11 Dec. 2021
  7. ↑ Paris, Joel (2020). Overdiagnosis in psychiatry how modern psychiatry lost its way while creating a diagnosis for almost all of life's misfortunes (Second ed.). New York, NY. ISBN   978-0-19-750430-7. OCLC   1147940363.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  8. ↑ Benning, Tony (2016). "No such thing as mental illness? Critical reflections on the major ideas and legacy of Thomas Szasz". BJPsych Bulletin. 40 (6): 292–295. doi:10.1192/pb.bp.115.053249. PMC   5353517 . PMID   28377805.
  9. ↑ Carey, Benedict (11 September 2012). "Dr. Thomas Szasz, Psychiatrist Who Led Movement Against His Field, Dies at 92". The New York Times. Retrieved 4 November 2021.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.