Psychiatry must stop objectifying people

At its worst, psychiatry treats patients as needing their brains cured. People may be considered by psychiatry to have a brain abnormality when there is no confirmed evidence this is the case. Even though psychiatric research has not established a physical basis for functional mental illness, psychiatry tends to act as though it will be established, or at least that biological factors will be shown to be involved in some way.

Patients, of course, have thoughts and feelings. They are mediated by the brain, no doubt. But that doesn’t mean those thoughts and feelings can be reduced to the brain, which is a mere object not a person, albeit part of the person. The brain does not have meaning, whereas what is important with mental illness is to try and understand the reasons for which the person may be presenting. Objectifying patients is not understanding them, however difficult it may be to be sure of what has caused their problems. 

Psychiatry does need to stop objectifying people by implying their thoughts and feelings are caused by the brain. People are not mere machines and psychiatry’s tendency to treat them in this way can be part of the problem rather than the solution to mental illness.