Why is psychiatry such big business? Why are so many psychiatric drugs prescribed, and why, without solid scientific justification, has the number of mental disorders risen from 106 in 1952, to around 370 today? In this talk, Dr James Davies takes us behind the scenes of how the psychiatrist’s bible, the DSM, was actually written – did science drive the construction of new mental disorder categories like ADHD, major depression and Aspergers? ‘ or were less-scientific and unexpected processes at play? His exclusive interviews with the creators of the DSM reveal the answer.
Dr James Davies graduated from the University of Oxford in 2006 with a DPhil in social and medical anthropology. He is a senior lecturer in social anthropology and psychotherapy at the University of Roehampton and a practicing psychotherapist (UKCP). He is also co-founder of the Council for Evidence-based Psychiatry. He has written widely in academe and has delivered lectures at the universities of Harvard, Yale, Oxford, Brown, London, Columbia, and The New School (New York). James has also written for The Times, The New Scientist, The Guardian and Salon. He is author of Cracked: why psychiatry is doing more harm than good (Icon Books).
