Comments on: Tired? Eat too much? Irritable? Congrats, you’re depressed. http://www.crikey.com.au/2009/09/07/tired-eat-too-much-irritable-congrats-youre-depressed/ now with extra source Sun, 12 Feb 2012 06:21:51 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: james mcdonald http://www.crikey.com.au/2009/09/07/tired-eat-too-much-irritable-congrats-youre-depressed/#comment-36736 james mcdonald Mon, 07 Sep 2009 05:22:42 +0000 http://www.crikey.com.au/2009/09/07/tired-eat-too-much-irritable-congrats-youre-depressed/#comment-36736 It's arguable that Freud's greatest contribution to medicine was not so much his theory of the subconscious, but establishing psychiatry as a scientific discipline, in which empirical measurement, inductive tests and outcomes, and a solid body of theory, became the tools of an area previously dependent on the practitioner's intuition. From this point of view, Freud's actual theoretical model of the subconscious was just a lauching pad, which could be superceded while still acknowledging him as the father of psychiatry. Also from this point of view, much of the clinical psychiatric profession has done little with his legacy except to bring about an industry of therapy-addiction and the commodification of much of the normal interpersonal communication that's best shared with friends and family. What can be terrifying for someone going through a rough patch is when those friends and family say: "I think you should see a psychiatrist." It’s arguable that Freud’s greatest contribution to medicine was not so much his theory of the subconscious, but establishing psychiatry as a scientific discipline, in which empirical measurement, inductive tests and outcomes, and a solid body of theory, became the tools of an area previously dependent on the practitioner’s intuition.

From this point of view, Freud’s actual theoretical model of the subconscious was just a lauching pad, which could be superceded while still acknowledging him as the father of psychiatry.

Also from this point of view, much of the clinical psychiatric profession has done little with his legacy except to bring about an industry of therapy-addiction and the commodification of much of the normal interpersonal communication that’s best shared with friends and family. What can be terrifying for someone going through a rough patch is when those friends and family say: “I think you should see a psychiatrist.”

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