Science Saturday: The Mental Illness Epidemic (John Horgan & George Johnson)

[willmybasilgrow]

Originally Posted by thprop

I have little respect for John anymore. His critique of string theory was taken apart in his diavlog with George Musser. He insists that we have free will because it is good to have. Jerry Coyne dismiised those arguments.

Now he is into conspiracy theory. Here are a few counters to Whitaker:
Carlat

A debate on the subject

A mental health professional who says to take his research seriously

John lets his own feelings override science.

Yes, regarding Carlat. I also urge other commenters here to go to Carlat. There are some excellent comments there.

Such as:
"The Harvard psychiatrists refuting Bob [Whitaker] were truly laughable. They seem to think that all it takes for them to be convincing is to say “I don’t agree” and issue a few ad hominem attacks. There was not one substantive argument that the way they practice medicine is actually doing good. And then for Dr. Rosenbloom to take pride in the fact that their department was actually one of the first to acknowledge “discontinuation” and "rebound" twenty or more years after the drugs were introduced just added insult to injury as far as I was concerned. This is what is so frightening about psychiatry – there is some gross disconnect between the doctors and their patients. What the doctors “see” and the patients describe is completely at odds. Until that comes into alignment we are in for some serious trouble and the trends Whitaker describes will only get worse. "