tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18614557.post6004829410945854793..comments2024-03-20T07:22:58.096+00:00Comments on Relational psychiatry: The limitations of psychiatric diagnosisDBDoublehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16140020984190294123noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18614557.post-5670673131282646322018-02-08T12:00:16.280+00:002018-02-08T12:00:16.280+00:00Yes it's an interesting project but yet more t...Yes it's an interesting project but yet more talk yet more conferences - no obligation to put any of it into practice. Who has benefitted so far Duncan? The same diagnostic labels will be used in a covert way anyway - and it is these which will follow individuals around on medical notes etc. You want it both ways instead of taking a clear stand - it 's not a philisophical debate for thse who who are impacted by offensice dehunamising diagnoses. Nevertheless thanks for your thoughtful blogs which bring these debates more into the public domain - they need to be publicised more widelyAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18614557.post-14232879014108633332018-01-23T15:44:13.093+00:002018-01-23T15:44:13.093+00:00Having read the Power Threat book, I applaud the c...Having read the Power Threat book, I applaud the contributors for their efforts. Certainly, considering environmental and social factors is essential in any reconceptualization of human behavior. I would like to, respectfully, suggest that other factors should also be considered. Another paradigm is available to replace the DSM and ICD that also considers human emotions as a driver of behavior, especially the emotion of shame. Self-Acceptance Psychology is a simple, but powerful new paradigm to describe and understand human behavior. It challenges the traditional ways of defining “mental disorders,” and reframes emotional and behavioral problems as adaptive and self-protective responses to fear, complex or chronic trauma, shame, and lack of secure attachment. These Five Causative Factors lead most people to have an inability to handle shame in healthy ways. It identifies poor shame tolerance as a key factor in development of anxiety, depression, personality disorders and other supposed mental illnesses. People adopt one of three Blame-Shifting Strategies that define essentially all unhealthy behaviors in relationships with self and others. Other-blamers lash out at others to offload shame (think of narcissistic, anti-social and borderline personality disorders, or just “toxic” and authoritarian people). Self-blamers attempt to manage shame through self-loathing, self-recrimination and perfectionism (think of OCD, anxiety, depression, social phobia, etc.) Blame Avoiders set up lives of distance and disconnection from others to avoid the shaming experience of criticism or failure. <br /><br />Self-Acceptance Psychology completely reinvents the labels, definitions, and symptoms used in the DSM. This will enable the profession and the public to talk openly, accurately, and directly about behaviors. Unlike the DSM it also provides a description of a healthy, emotionally functional human: one with self-acceptance who can tolerate shame in non-reactive ways. <br /><br />Case formulation focuses on the Five Causative Factors and considers things such as fear as a cause of hyper- or hypo-arousal and hyper- and hypo-reactivity (ADHD, anxiety, depression, schizoaffective disorder, etc, etc.). Other constructs in formulation include identifying unworthiness, identifying attachment trauma from childhood as a source of feelings of unworthiness, and attachment patterns (anxious, avoidant) etc. Unlike the DSM, Self-Acceptance Psychology also provides a solution that is directly derived from formulation: poor shame tolerance is resolved by improving self-acceptance or self-compassion. Learning to reducing feelings of unworthiness by treating one’s flaws and failures with kindness is essential to avoid reacting poorly when shamed or criticized by the self or by others. Lots more at www.HarperWest.co Harper West, psychotherapist<br />Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03763722659388591731noreply@blogger.com