Behaviorism and Mental Health

Alternative perspective on psychiatry's so-called mental disorders | PHILIP HICKEY, PH.D.

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Drugs, Placebos, and Life

August 23, 2010 By Phil Hickey |

I have recently read a very interesting book by Irving Kirsch, PhD. It’s called The Emperor’s New Drugs, and the central theme of the work is that antidepressants are only very slightly more effective than placebos (i.e. sugar pills), and that the difference is not clinically significant.

The logic is cogent and the research is rigorous. Read the book and decide for yourself.

Dr. Kirsch argues in favor of psychotherapy as a substitute for pills. And certainly talking is usually helpful. However, as long as depression is conceptualized as an illness, I don’t believe we will see real progress in this field.

Depression is not an illness. Depression is not an instance of something going wrong in an organism, but rather something going right. It is an adaptive response – a warning system (analogous to pain), alerting us to a need to make some changes in lifestyle.

The fact is that each person has within him or herself the resources needed to generate and maintain positive feelings. This is the essential point of the placebo research. It wasn’t the sugar pills (or the antidepressants) that generated the positive feelings. It was the individuals themselves starting to take appropriate corrective action in their lives.

The six natural antidepressants are:

– good nutrition

– fresh air

– sunshine

– physical activity, with frequent successes

– purposeful activity

– at least one good, open, honest relationship

When these factors are present in our lives to a significant degree, we feel generally positive; when one or more is largely absent, we feel down. These ideas are developed more fully in my post of July 28, 2009: Depression is not an Illness.

If you’re taking antidepressants, you owe it to yourself to read Dr. Kirsch’s book.

Cover of Kirsch's Book Irving Kirsch, Ph.D,
The Bodley Head, 2009

Filed Under: A Behavioral Approach to Mental Disorders Tagged With: books worth reading, depression, placebo

About Phil Hickey

I am a licensed psychologist, presently retired. I have worked in clinical and managerial positions in the mental health, corrections, and addictions fields in the United States and England. My wife Nancy and I have been married since 1970 and have four grown children.

 

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The phrase "mental health" as used in the name of this website is simply a term of convenience. It specifically does not imply that the human problems embraced by this term are illnesses, or that their absence constitutes health. Indeed, the fundamental tenet of this site is that there are no mental illnesses, and that conceptualizing human problems in this way is spurious, destructive, disempowering, and stigmatizing.

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The purpose of this website is to provide a forum where current practices and ideas in the mental health field can be critically examined and discussed. It is not possible in this kind of context to provide psychological help or advice to individuals who may read this site, and nothing written here should be construed in this manner. Readers seeking psychological help should consult a qualified practitioner in their own local area. They should explain their concerns to this person and develop a trusting working relationship. It is only in a one-to-one relationship of this kind that specific advice should be given or taken.

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