The central theme of this blog is that almost all the so-called mental illnesses listed in the APA’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual are nothing more than the ordinary everyday challenges of human existence. The psychiatric profession has “elevated” these problems to the status of disorders and illnesses to justify and legitimize their involvement in these areas, and in particular to justify the use of drugs to alter people’s moods and actions. Psychiatry – once a respectable helping profession – has degenerated into something little better than drug pushing. The real winners, of course, are the pharmaceutical companies, who use the psychiatrists and other mental health professionals to promote the widespread drugging of the population. The DSM’s so-called sexual disorders represent a particularly blatant example of psychiatric invention.
Imagine the case of an attractive well-dressed young lady who boards a crowded bus or train. It’s standing room only, and after a few minutes she becomes aware of the fact that the gentleman standing behind her is pressing his groin against her buttocks. At first she thinks that it is just because the train is crowded. So she inches away from him, but he follows and the pressing continues. She becomes angry. She may confront him, but often does not for fear of causing a scene. Frequently she just exits at the next stop, seething with anger and a sense of helplessness. Perhaps later she recounts the incident to her husband, boyfriend, co-worker, etc… Her response to the incident remains one of anger, but this usually dissipates in time as she writes the perpetrator off as a “dirty little pervert” or some such.
What she doesn’t’ realize, however, is that the perpetrator is in reality “suffering from” a “mental illness” called frotteurism. This is an “official” DSM diagnosis. Let me quote:
The paraphilic focus of frotteurism involves touching and rubbing against a nonconsenting person. The behavior usually occurs in crowded places from which the individual can more easily escape arrest (e.g., on busy sidewalks or in public transportation vehicles). He rubs his genitals against the victim’s thighs and buttocks or fondles her genitalia or breasts with his hands. (DSM IV TR, p 570)
I am not making this up. Over the years, the APA has learned that they can get away with almost anything, and the diagnostic categories expand and expand and expand. And the psychiatrists’ and pharmaceutical companies’ cash registers go kerchung, kerchung, kerchung.
As far as the psychiatrists are concerned, every human problem is a mental illness and should be “treated” with drugs.
Next post: More on the so-called sexual disorders.