On “Cracked: Why Psychiatry is Doing More Harm Than Good”

In this episode we use James Davies’ book “Cracked: Why Psychiatry is Doing More Harm Than Good” as a launch pad to discuss some of the glaring issues with psychiatry and its sugar-daddy; the pharmaceutical industry.

The writer, James Davies is psychotherapist with a PhD in Medical and Social Anthropology from the University of Oxford. He is a Senior Lecturer in Social Anthropology and Psychology at the University of Roehampton, London.

Davies acknowledges that as a psychotherapist he could be seen as being biased in favour of the psychotherapeutic approach which can be considered to be in opposition to the ‘pharmaceutical’ approach of psychiatry. He makes no attempt to present a balanced account in this book—it unashamedly presents a series of arguments against psychiatry and its sugar-daddy (Alejandro’s words…) the pharmaceutical industry.

Overall, thestrongest arguments presented concern depression and the inefficacy of anti-depressant drugs, and perhaps he should have narrowed his argument to focus just on depression rather than extrapolate to the whole field. Regardless, he makes a number of compelling points that portray psychiatry and the pharmaceutical industry as nothing short of despicable.

The main points of this book can be summarised as follows:

1. psychiatric diagnostic models are more products of culture than of science
2. the efficacy of antidepressant drugs is no better than placebo
3. pharmaceutical companies engage in behaviours that present antidepressants as more effective than they really are
4. behind Western psychiatry is a variety of cultural assumptions about human nature and the role of suffering of questionable validity and utility.
5. Western practices of psychiatry may undermine successful local ways of managing distress

We also consider in this episode one of the most important chapters in the history of psychedelic culture, being the adventures of the brothers McKenna to La Chorera in the Colombian Amazon, and their encounter there with The Mushroom…

References

• Cracked: Why Psychiatry is Doing More Harm Than Good (2013) written by James Davies
• Episode 1 — Challenging Psychedelic Experiences
• Moncrieff, J., Cooper, R.E., Stockmann, T. et al. The serotonin theory of depression: a systematic umbrella review of the evidence. Mol Psychiatry 28, 3243–3256 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41380-022-01661-0
  • vs…
• Jauhar, S., Arnone, D., Baldwin, D.S. et al. A leaky umbrella has little value: evidence clearly indicates the serotonin system is implicated in depression. Mol Psychiatry 28, 3149–3152 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41380-023-02095-y
• Ferguson, I., & Dowd, P. (2019). Mental health social work: the dog that hasn’t barked. In M. Lavalette (Ed.), What is the Future of Social Work? (1st ed., pp. 57–68). Bristol University Press. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvqc6hjk.11
• Corpus Christi (2019)
• Martín Prechtel — The Smell of Rain on Dust: Grief and Praise
• Dr Rosalind Watts
• Terence McKenna — True Hallucinations: Being an Account of the Author's Extraordinary Adventures in the Devil's Paradise

Links

Altered Mates Website

Altered Mates Instagram

Music for the show by Si Mulumby

A Glimpse of Eternity by Alejandro Tuama

• Purchase the novel here.
• Listen to the serialised audiobook here.