Time for ‘Radicalization’ of Psychiatry

Psychiatry relies too much on a technological model in its approach to people with mental illness, said a panel at APA’s 2013 annual meeting in San Francisco. “Psychiatry can be a liberating force if it is linked to medical, scientific, and sociopolitical circumstances,” said session co-chair Carl Cohen, M.D. As a profession, psychiatry has to look at how issues like globalization, climate change, and poverty influence the incidence and course of mental illness, added co-chair Kenneth Thompson, M.D. Making room for social, political, environmental, and cultural factors alongside biological explanations will be critical, agreed the panel. To learn more about this perspective, watch this video interview with Dr. Thompson.