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- Title
Can psychiatry reclaim its soul? Psychiatry's struggleagainst a dispirited future.
- Authors
Halasz, George
- Abstract
Objectives: To examine reasons why ‘religion’ and ‘psychiatry’,as systems of belief, have a fraught, mistrustful relationship basedon conflict regarding the source of knowledge. The former insiststhat revelation, not rational empirical evidence, thelatter's claim for superiority, is the ultimate sourcethat illuminates the soul, not just the self. This tension is illustratedwith the case of ‘facilitated communication’,a method that purportedly improves communication for children with pervasivedevelopmental disorder. The controversy highlightsan aspect of the differences between ‘scientific’ and ‘religious’ discourseand offers a further dimension to contemporary psychiatry’scrisis: the three-way tension between the brain-less, mind-lessand soul-less psychiatry. Conclusion: The suggestion for a possible remedyis to revisit the source of discontent, the Aristoteliandoctrine that challenged the ancient wisdom of the immortality ofthe soul.
- Subjects
PSYCHIATRY &; religion; FACILITATED communication
- Publication
Australasian Psychiatry, 2003, Vol 11, Issue 1, p9
- ISSN
1039-8562
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1046/j.1440-1665.2003.00518.x