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Images of Psychiatry
This
chapter looks at the images surrounding psychiatry that create
fear in the layperson, when it comes to psychiatric treatment.
This is done through a step-by-step dialogue with my psychiatrist.
For example…
GWENDOLINE:
Do
you think the resistance to treatment is connected to the
perception of the relationship between psychiatry and drug
therapy?
DR
HONEYMAN: That
is often the case. People think that they will be turned into
a zombie. Part of it is also the fear that they are going
to be sent away to an institution for a lengthy period of
time. The other thing they begin to fear is that if they have
to see a psychiatrist and take drugs, they've got something
incurable. I don't think the public by large would have much
idea of there being a range of very curable psychiatric disorders.
As long as outdated images and perceptions of psychiatry endure,
millions of people worldwide remain untreated as a result
of fear and ignorance. This next chapter is designed to give
the reader insight into the contemporary reality of psychiatric
treatment.
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