Heroes of Uncertainty

[postatomic]

Mental diseases are not really understood the way, say, liver diseases are understood, as a pathology of the body and its tissues and cells. Researchers understand the underlying structure of very few mental ailments. What psychiatrists call a disease is usually just a label for a group of symptoms. As the eminent psychiatrist Allen Frances writes in his book, “Saving Normal,” a word like schizophrenia is a useful construct, not a disease: “It is a description of a particular set of psychiatric problems, not an explanation of their cause.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/28/opinion/brooks-heroes-of-uncertainty.html?_r=0

A short read. An Op Ed piece.

I've often felt that slapping a label or two on me wasn't productive. Making me feel 'normal' again. Making me happy. This is all I've ever wanted. I know that labels are needed to decide which drug cocktail to throw at someone. But after that, what?