The History of Psychiatry is important for all physicians to understand. Progress in mental health care has not always been in a straight line, and patients have also suffered because of this (e.g. - lobotomy and indiscriminate use of ECT). Understanding historical treatments and views of mental illness informs the care we provide today, and is important for all physicians.
Diagnostic Fads in psychiatry are a recurring theme, due to limitations of diagnosing based on subjective symptoms and the lack of reliable biomarkers.[2][3] Recent diagnostic fads include: pediatric bipolar disorder and multiple personality disorder.[4]
Critical Psychiatry is a movement within and outside psychiatry that critiques commonly held beliefs in academic psychiatry, such as biological etiologies of mental illness, role of psychiatry in social control, and . Critical psychiatry is not anti-psychiatry, and the positions of critical psychiatrists vary greatly, which makes the term difficult to define. It is also important to note that critical psychiatry is not anti-psychiatry, but there may be individuals who overlap between the two camps.[5]