Scientists have shown that "mental" illness is actually the result of physical brain abnormalities, but most people are still using misleading terminology.
The stakes are high, as the way we look at, label, and treat mental illness has resulted in unnecessary suffering, symptomatology, disability, and suicides.
Stefan Lerner, M.D., challenges the status quo in this treatise, arguing that psychiatrists need to be trained like neurologists, focusing on the physical brain and its pathologies. Lay therapists, he says, are perfectly suited to offer psychotherapy.
According to the author, the label "mentally ill" implies that those illnesses are not as "real" as physical illnesses, that an act of will can overcome them. The label is also stigmatizing, which prevents individuals from seeking help.
The bottom line is the very concept of an illness being "mental" is scientifically wrong. They must be reclassified as physical brain illnesses like neurological illnesses. This is the most effective way to reduce stigma and improve diagnosis and treatment.
Join the author as he tackles a weighty topic with serious implications for doctors, psychiatrists, and hundreds of thousands of everyday people.
About the Author: Stefan Lerner, M.D. is a senior physician/psychiatrist who has been in practice for more than forty years. He is a diplomate of the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology and a member in good standing of The American Medical Association. His primary clinical practice is in clinical psychopharmacology and its background basis, neuroscience.
