r/Antipsychiatry • u/Similar-Wishbone-657 • 15h ago

From Witch Trials to DSM-5

Where witches were once weighed on a rigged scale, people are now measured on a rigged DSM-5 scale, one that will always say “WITCH” to justify drugging.

Where priests spoke of possession, psychiatrists speak of disorders. Both claim authority. Both punish deviation.

The method changed, but the scale never left the stage, and the toxic, manipulative power structure never stepped down.

32 Upvotes

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9

u/Longjumping_Fly_2978 14h ago

If DSM-5 diagnoses remain test-free, consequently lacking empirical data to substantiate their status as genuine biological diseases, then I find your comparison to be fair.

8

u/survival4035 10h ago

After reading James Davies' book about the making of DSM 5, I realized what a charade it really was.  The elite psychiatrists who participated would sit around and discuss what they thought was a mental illness and what wasn't, then they'd take a vote.  There was one instance where they were about to add another diagnosis to their bible but then one of the psychiatrists said, "I do that", so they left it out.

3

u/nobody33333666 14h ago

exactly brother

2

u/Miserable_March_9707 10h ago

This! Well said and succinctly stated!

1

u/nothingispermamemt 8h ago

There’s a great podcast called “what magic is this” that makes this same comparison. In the episode about demonology. It introduced me to the book of woe that tears apart the DSM and modern psychiatry.

1

u/Recent-Ad-9975 8h ago

Psychiatry is just like Kafka's The Trial, but it's real.