Psychiatry beyond the current paradigm.

A series of editorials in this Journal have argued that psychiatry is in the midst of a crisis. The various solutions proposed would all involve a strengthening of psychiatry's identity as essentially 'applied neuroscience'. Although not discounting the importance of the brain sciences and psychopharmacology, we argue that psychiatry needs to move beyond the dominance of the current, technological paradigm. This would be more in keeping with the evidence about how positive outcomes are achieved and could also serve to foster more meaningful collaboration with the growing service user movement.

Consciousness reinstated using the certainty principle--a better mental health strategy.

The statistical probability that six consecutive carbon double-bonds will all be 'cis' is less than chance (p < 0.02). The chances of all-cis-docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) recurring in quantity over geological time is infinitesimal. Since such intriguing considerations are scrupulously eliminated from orthodox conceptualisations, a refurbished Occam's razor--the Certainty Principle--is offered as a responsible pragmatic guide. Six indelible flaws in our ways of knowing precedes a psychiatry that is immediately understandable, self-evident and effective, here supported by objective evidence from prison data. The only realistic antidote to our lethal global psychiatric epidemic is reinstating consciousness and its wellbeing.