NOT AN ALTERNATIVE TO DRUGS

We need to move to post-psychiatry. As long as the medical conception of our work is employed, there will be fraud and oppression. I was once challenged to define my work without use of terms such as 'clinical', 'therapy', "patient", etc.
What my role is is to empower people to become effective in their lives, to be able to make decisions and cope in ways that provide them the greatest benefit. We cannot eradicate pain and suffering, and at times it is this natural feeling that we need to let us know that 'we exist' and through pain and suffering we are often taught great lessons.
It is time as well that we stop functioning at the level of prostitutes, offering some sort of relationship and sense of one who 'listens and understands' while our sole intention is to make money. Financial gain cannot be the main factor in the helping professions but it appears in psychiatry it is often the only thing thought of. Managed care companies do not want counseling which might be longer term but actually teach a person new skills, but want drugs which are cheaper and control and subdue the person.
What is disturbing that the the true desire to help others build stronger relationships and have happier lives is seen as merely an 'alternative' to psychiatric drugs which are thought to do the same. Such work is not an alternative, it is what should be done period, and it often does not take a professional to build a relationship with a person that leads them out of distress. One should ask what the difference is between the drug dealer on the street and the psychiatrist. Both push drugs. Both make money. Both seek to give the person something that will 'mellow them out." The only differences are who profits, and that the dealer is not sanctioned by the law.
Szasz mentioned that child psychiatry cannot be reformed, it must be abolished. I wholeheartedly agree. We must embark on a completely new path in the helping professions, discarding all the trappings of the medical model and the fraud it entails.