Contemporary psychiatric misdirections derived primarily from standard medical errors of oversimplification, misplaced emphasis, and invention are reviewed. These particular errors, however, were in part prompted and sustained by the sociocultural fads and fashions of the day. The results have been disastrous for everyone — patients, families, the public and psychiatry itself.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Relevant articles
Open Access articles citing this article.
-
Firebug! Dissociative Identity Disorder? Malingering? Or …? An Intensive Case Study of an Arsonist
Psychological Injury and Law Open Access 23 June 2020
Access options
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 12 print issues and online access
$209.00 per year
only $17.42 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on Springer Link
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
References
McHugh, P.R., A structure for psychiatry at the century's turn — the view from Johns Hopkins. J. R. Soc. Med. 85 483–487 (1992).
Szasz, T. Schizophrenia — The Sacred Symbol of Phychiatry, 136 (Basic Books, New York, 1976).
Suddath, R.L., Christison., G.W., Torrey., E.F., Casanova, M.F. & Weinberger, D.R. Anatomical abnormalities in the brains of monozygotic twins discordant for schizophrenia. New Engl. J. Med., 322 789–794 (1990).
Barta, P.E., Pearlson, G.D., Powers, R.E., Richards, S.S. & Tune, L.E. Auditory hallucinations and smaller superior temporal gyral volume in schizophrenia. Am. J. Psychiatry, 147, 1457–1462 (1990).
McHugh, P.R. & Slavney, P.R. The Perspectives of Psychiatry, 57 (Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, Maryland, 1983).
McKenna, P.J. Disorders with overvalued ideas. Br. J. Psychiat. 145, 579–585 (1984).
Wernicke, C. Fundamentals of Psychiatry. (Leipzig, 1906).
Starkey, M.L. The Devil in Massachusetts: A Modem Enquiry into the Salem Witch Trials (Dolphin Books, Doubleday and Co., Inc, Garden City, New York, 1961).
Terr, L. Chowchilla revisited: The effects of psychic trauma four years after a schoolbus kidnapping. Am. J. Psychiatry, 140, 1543–1540, (1983).
Kenny, M.G. The Passion of Ansel Bourne: Multiple Personality in American Culture (Smithsonian In-stitution Press, Washington, D C 1986).
A prior version of this essay appeared entitled “Psychiatric Misadventures” in The American Scholar, 61, 497–510, (1992).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
McHugh, P. Witches, multiple personalities, and other psychiatric artifacts. Nat Med 1, 110–114 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1038/nm0295-110
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nm0295-110
This article is cited by
-
Firebug! Dissociative Identity Disorder? Malingering? Or …? An Intensive Case Study of an Arsonist
Psychological Injury and Law (2020)
-
Psychiatry disabused
Nature Medicine (1995)
-
Psychiatric artifacts
Nature Medicine (1995)
-
Psychiatry disabused
Nature Medicine (1995)
-
Psychiatry disabused
Nature Medicine (1995)