I'm going to start work as a trainee Psychiatry in August, and I don't like it. By 'it', I mean the way that psychiatry is practised currently. I think most of us are not able to treat people in the way we would like to, I think there aren't enough resources, I don't agree with the way that the science was framed to me at medical school and I don't believe that what people in crisis need is what we are offering them. I think there are a lot of reasons for this and a lot that can be done. The worst tragedy is that I think most or at least many psychiatrists broadly would agree with the statements I've made but so far we have not been able to change things.
But what do I know? I haven't even begun yet.
So I've reached out to the Critical Psychiatry Network to ask for advice. This first page is a list of the resources I was suggested, which will be a first reference point for me. I hope it might also be useful for someone else looking for more perspectives than the mainstream 'biological' psychiatry.
1. Incidentally, a good publisher of heterodox perspectives on mental health and the psy professions in PCCS Books.
2. https://awaisaftab.blogspot.com/2019/12/conversations-in-critical-psychiatry.html
3. https://criticalpsychiatry.blogspot.com/2020/04/a-history-of-critical-psychiatry-in.html
4. A
General Theory of Love
Gabor Maté
Bessel van der Kolk
