The meteoric rise of mental illness in America and implications for other countries
Author(s) / Creator(s)
Stolzer, Jeanne M.
Abstract / Description
Over the last 20-30 years, proponents of the medical model have hypothesized that mental illness is the result of a “chemical imbalance” in the brain (i.e., neurological atrophy, Breggin, 2011). In spite of the fact that no scientific evidence exists to support this hypothesis, the medical model’s claim that mental illness is the result of neurological malfunctioning has been widely disseminated by the pharmaceutical industry and by the medical community, in general, across the western world (Breggin, 2006; Healy, 2015). As a direct result of the widespread acceptance of the chemical imbalance hypothesis, millions of men, women, and children are prescribed daily doses of dangerous and addictive psychiatric drugs for a plethora of mental illnesses that, just a generation ago, were unheard of (Baughman & Hovey, 2006). This paper will challenge the current medical model’s definition of mental illness, will offer a theoretically sound alternative to psychiatric drug treatment, and will explore in depth the cultural, economic, historical, ideological, and social correlates that can be intrinsically linked to the meteoric rise in psychiatric illness across much of the western world.
Keyword(s)
mental illness psychiatric illness psychiatric diagnoses rise in psychiatric illnessPersistent Identifier
Date of first publication
2016-08-18
Journal title
The European Journal of Counselling Psychology
Volume
4
Issue
2
Page numbers
228–246
Publisher
PsychOpen GOLD
Publication status
publishedVersion
Review status
peerReviewed
Is version of
Citation
Stolzer, J. M. (2016). The meteoric rise of mental illness in America and implications for other countries. The European Journal of Counselling Psychology, 4(2), 228–246. https://doi.org/10.5964/ejcop.v4i2.77
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Author(s) / Creator(s)Stolzer, Jeanne M.
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PsychArchives acquisition timestamp2018-11-29T07:49:04Z
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Made available on2018-11-29T07:49:04Z
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Date of first publication2016-08-18
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Abstract / DescriptionOver the last 20-30 years, proponents of the medical model have hypothesized that mental illness is the result of a “chemical imbalance” in the brain (i.e., neurological atrophy, Breggin, 2011). In spite of the fact that no scientific evidence exists to support this hypothesis, the medical model’s claim that mental illness is the result of neurological malfunctioning has been widely disseminated by the pharmaceutical industry and by the medical community, in general, across the western world (Breggin, 2006; Healy, 2015). As a direct result of the widespread acceptance of the chemical imbalance hypothesis, millions of men, women, and children are prescribed daily doses of dangerous and addictive psychiatric drugs for a plethora of mental illnesses that, just a generation ago, were unheard of (Baughman & Hovey, 2006). This paper will challenge the current medical model’s definition of mental illness, will offer a theoretically sound alternative to psychiatric drug treatment, and will explore in depth the cultural, economic, historical, ideological, and social correlates that can be intrinsically linked to the meteoric rise in psychiatric illness across much of the western world.en_US
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Publication statuspublishedVersion
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Review statuspeerReviewed
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CitationStolzer, J. M. (2016). The meteoric rise of mental illness in America and implications for other countries. The European Journal of Counselling Psychology, 4(2), 228–246. https://doi.org/10.5964/ejcop.v4i2.77en_US
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ISSN2195-7614
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Persistent Identifierhttps://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12034/1664
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Persistent Identifierhttps://doi.org/10.23668/psycharchives.2030
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Language of contenteng
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PublisherPsychOpen GOLD
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Is version ofhttps://doi.org/10.5964/ejcop.v4i2.77
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Keyword(s)mental illnessen_US
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Keyword(s)psychiatric illnessen_US
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Keyword(s)psychiatric diagnosesen_US
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Keyword(s)rise in psychiatric illnessen_US
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Dewey Decimal Classification number(s)150
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TitleThe meteoric rise of mental illness in America and implications for other countriesen_US
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DRO typearticle
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Issue2
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Journal titleThe European Journal of Counselling Psychology
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Page numbers228–246
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Volume4
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Visible tag(s)Version of Record