[ottbmare]

You probably don’t have any trouble believing that a person could have bone cancer. Or stomach ulcers. Or asthma. Or heart disease, diabetes, hyothyroidism, bunions, osteoarthritis, multiple sclerosis, or psoriasis. Do you believe someone might legitimately have Down’s Syndrome? Or Parkinson’s?

Why is it easy to believe that something might be wrong with one’s liver or kidneys, but not believe that the most incomprehensibly complex and delicate organ in the body, the brain, might malfunction?

Mental illness exists, just as heart, liver, pancreatic, and uterine disease does. To think the brain is somehow immune from flaws in its development and function, and that all bad behavior is the result of some scam on the part of psychiatrists, is not logical.

[Revolting cat!]

No one asserts what you allege in the last sentence. The actual assertion earlier in the thread is that psychiatry, like sociology, to which it is related, is subject to fashions and social trends. If the "recovered memory syndrome" and Sybil can be judged fake after a couple of decades, then so can other currently fashionable psychological maladies, that's all. Recall that much of Freud's theory has been discounted, and heck, he's the "father" of modern psychiatry. My own grandfather was a physician around Freud's time. Much of his knowledge is still current.