The Role of Psychiatry

“The erosion of personal responsibility is, arguably, the most pernicious effect of the expansive role psychiatry has come to play in American life. It has successfully replaced huge chunks of individual accountability with diagnoses, clinical histories and what turn out to be pseudoscientific explanations for deviant behavior.”

—Irwin Savodnik [psychiatrist], from his article “Psychiatry’s sick compulsion: turning weaknesses into diseases,” January 1, 2006, Los Angeles Times