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diagnosis as a weapon

Posted by med_empowered on December 12, 2005, at 17:44:15

In reply to Re: Confront an old, bad shrink? » med_empowered, posted by sleepygirl on December 11, 2005, at 17:03:45

After my experience with this awful therapist, who decided I was "schizophrenic," and stretched the diagnostic criteria to the breaking point to fit me into that category, I've come to realize that what psychiatric survivors, anti-psychiatry activists, etc. say is true: diagnosis can be used to manipulate, degrade, and discredit people.


The diagnosis of "schizophrenia" skewed the doc-patient relationship so that he was in much, much more power than I was; suddenly, he felt comfortable presuming to pass judgement over my life and act as if he knew more about me than I knew about myself--afterall, I was "schizophrenic" and needed all the help I could get, right?

So now, I'm careful about diagnosis. I'm also careful about trusting a therapist too soon or opening up too much early on. Most of all, I'm more sensitive to the power imbalance in the therapist-patient relationship.


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