No Such Thing as Normal: Disorders, Diagnoses and the Limits of Psychiatry

There is no such thing as a normal brain, yet we
live in a world that treats disorder as disease.

Psychiatry rests on the belief that mental distress can ultimately be explained
by biology: brain structures, chemical imbalances and genetics. Treatments from
lobotomies to electroconvulsive therapy to prescription drugs have been touted
as cures for 'disorder'. And somewhere along the way, the pharmaceutical
industry has leapfrogged its patients, making millions designing drugs to treat
disorders, then billions dreaming up disorders that require drugs.

We are now diagnosed and treated for mental disorders more than ever, despite
increasing evidence that environmental factors play a far greater role than
biological ones.

Laying out the steps for a mental health system that helps rather than harms,
Marieke Bigg asks: how can we heal when faced with an industry that banks on
keeping us sick?