Against reductive explanations for human conditions

Abstract

Psychiatric labels of depression and anxiety have been increasingly employed to explain mental distress and illness over the past century. They have also been recognised as among the leading causes of disability. Psychiatry postulates neurochemical etiology and pathology, identifies clinical symptoms, suggests diagnostic criteria and often prescribes medication-based solutions for these conditions. Nevertheless, the discipline has been criticised for medicalising all personal and social distress.