Critical psychiatry is a relatively new approach to psychiatry and its popularity is growing steadily. The Critical Psychiatry Network (CPN), formed in 1999, is an informal group of psychiatrists who follow this approach. Critical psychiatry is sceptical of reductionist approaches to mental health which try to explain emotional distress in terms of biochemical imbalances and

Members' Papers

Science, psychiatry and the mystery of madness: Bracken P & Thomas P

26 Dec, 1999

Reprinted with permission from Openmind 100:10-11 (November/December 1999) © 1999 Mind (National Association for Mental Health) POST-PSYCHIATRY Pat Bracken and Phil Thomas As we head into the last months of the nineteen nineties it is worth reflecting on the achievements of the ‘decade of the brain’. Neuroscience promised to reveal the secrets of the nervous

Members' Papers

Let’s scrap schizophrenia: Bracken P & Thomas P

26 Sep, 1999

Reprinted with permission from Openmind 99 (September/October 1999) ©1999 Mind (National Association for Mental Health) POST-PSYCHIATRY Pat Bracken and Phil Thomas Since the caustic critiques of Szasz and Laing in the 1960’s, the concept of schizophrenia has been attacked from a variety of quarters. The psychiatric establishment has defended the diagnosis vigorously, and schizophrenia continues