Toward a new psychiatry

In this paper I explore the limitations of the medical model approach to mental health problems that dominate psychiatry. Examining issue of diagnosis, treatment, stigma and the impact of globalising Western thinking on mental health, I hope to demonstrate that the scientific/ empirical basis of dominant models is insufficient and that globalizing what essentially are ideological positions is potentially damaging. Instead of continuing to globalise current mainstream models, readers are encouraged to join other psychiatrists who are in the process of developing alternative models that are more culturally sensitive. Modern Western psychiatry has secured many important advances in the care of people with mental distress. We have a variety of pharmacotherapies that can help manage distressing symptoms alongside an even greater variety of psychotherapeutic approaches that help people in distress make sense of their experiences and find new ways to deal with them. The old asylums have been emptied and community care has developed a rich variety of services from early intervention to crisis management. The academic community, studying mental distress from a variety of angles have grown in numbers and sophistication with many journals and thousands of articles being published each year. These are worthy achievements and this progress has no doubt helped thousands and maybe millions of people across the world. Yet the desired story of a continuous growth of knowledge leading to better understanding and treatments is at best incomplete, at worst misleading. In this article I will explain the problems with remaining wedded to the current dominant paradigm used in psychiatry [the medical model] and outline one way in which the global community of practitioners can come together to develop ideas and practices that can take them beyond these limitations

[ use of psycho-pharmaceuticals to control boys' behaviour: a tale of badly behaving drug companies and doctors]

There has been a rapid rise in rates of diagnosis of and prescription of psycho-pharmaceuticals for, behavioural disorders in children in general, and boys in particular, in North American, North European and Australasian countries. This article concentrates on the evidence base for the prescription of psycho-pharmaceuticals for the two most common of these disorders: ADHD and Autism. The practice of widespread prescribing is based more on successful marketing than scientific evidence. Arab and other non- Western societies can learn from these mistakes and take a more cautious approach before accepting the validity of these diagnoses and the benefits of prescribing medication to 'treat' them

changing space of childhood in the west and its relationship to narcissism and children's mental health

Rates of diagnosis of psychiatric disorders in children have increased dramatically in most Western countries in recent decades. This article explores some of the possible socio-cultural reasons for this. The impact of the growth of Narcissism [love or pre-occupation with the self] in Western culture on both children and their families is discussed. Implications for professionals working with children who are growing up in Western or non-Western societies are outlined