Niall McLaren | The University of Queensland, Australia (original) (raw)
Papers by Niall McLaren
THE CATEGORICAL SYSTEM OF DIAGNOSIS: PERSONALITY DISORDER. , 2007
A critique of the DSM system of categorical diagnosis of personality disorder. Mainstream psychia... more A critique of the DSM system of categorical diagnosis of personality disorder. Mainstream psychiatry does not have a theory of personality or a model of personality disorder. Current systems of classification are wholly descriptive, with no explanatory content whatsoever. Despite the objective gloss of "diagnostic criteria," all decisions are subjective and wide open to bias - and abuse.
Australasian Psychiatry, 2022
N/A
Mad in America, 2022
For as long as there have been records, mentally-disturbed people have been treated abominably. O... more For as long as there have been records, mentally-disturbed people have been treated abominably. One of the oldest approaches has been to lock them away, often permanently. What is the justification for this? I conclude there is no justification and the whole question needs to be reassessed.
Natural Dualism and Mental Disorder
Natural Dualism and Mental Disorder
Natural Dualism and Mental Disorder
At the very heart of psychiatry, people seem totally unconcerned about making claims that, for ex... more At the very heart of psychiatry, people seem totally unconcerned about making claims that, for example, philosophers have never been able to prove.
Psychiatric Times February 23rd 2011, 2011
One of the impulse-control disorders, Intermittend Explosive Disorder includes serious acts of ag... more One of the impulse-control disorders, Intermittend Explosive Disorder includes serious acts of aggression against person or property that are completely out of proportion to any provocation. I submit that the pattern of disturbance outlined by Kessler’s group in their account of IED precisely meets the criteria for a personality disorder. They are searching for an illness when in fact all they have done is to isolate a common personality factor which is evidence of more pervasive, underlying personality disorder.
www.psychiatrictimes.com/view/temper-tantrums-mental-disorder-and-dsm-5-case-caution
Australian & New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry
Ethical Human Psychology and Psychiatry, 2016
A notorious case of a man detained and shackled to his bed while receiving ECT as an involuntary ... more A notorious case of a man detained and shackled to his bed while receiving ECT as an involuntary patient raises critically important questions for institutional psychiatry. These relate to the fundamental premises on which the mentally-disturbed are detained and forced to take treatment against their will. There is, however, very little prospect of psychiatrists willingly answering questions which threaten their livelihood.
Ethical Human Psychology and Psychiatry, 2016
Objective: As part of the philosophical project of distinguishing science and nonscience, an anci... more Objective: As part of the philosophical project of distinguishing science and nonscience, an ancient concept, bullshit, has recently been redefined and explored. This is not science or does it meet a strict definition of pseudoscience. This article explores the extent to which this concept pervades psychiatry. Conclusion: By even the most charitable interpretation of the concept, the institution of modern psychiatry is replete with bullshit.
Ethical Human Psychology and Psychiatry, 2010
Theories of psychiatry do not exist an intellectual vacuum. They must mesh at many points with ot... more Theories of psychiatry do not exist an intellectual vacuum. They must mesh at many points with other bodies of knowledge. Biological psychiatry tries to prove that mental disorder and brain disorder are one and the same thing. This has no rational basis in any accepted theory of mind. This article examines two other philosophical theories that biological psychiatrists might use as their rationale: Dennett’s functionalism and Searle’s natural biologism. However, these avowedly antidualist theories fail, as they secretly rely on irreducibly dualist notions to complete their explanatory accounts of mind. Biological psychiatry is thus an ideology, not a scientific theory.
Ethical Human Psychology and Psychiatry, 2011
The US National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) has recently declared a new research program fo... more The US National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) has recently declared a new research program for psychiatry, the Research Domain Criteria (RDoC), as the successor of the long-standing Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) diagnostic program. However, the new program is based on a series of assumptions that, on analysis, lack any formal scientific standing. Essentially, as presently conceptualized, the RDoC program is no more than ideology masquerading as science, and thus cannot achieve its stated goals. It is argued that the program will lead psychiatry into intellectually sterile areas because it is in fact the wrong research program for the present state of our knowledge.
Ethical Human Psychology and Psychiatry, 2013
Background: The current psychiatric literature carries numerous papers arguing that the correct a... more Background: The current psychiatric literature carries numerous papers arguing that the correct approach to mental disorder is to see it as a special form of brain disorder, whose precise biochemical and genetic causes will be revealed by the normal methods of laboratory science. In particular, these claims are repeated in numerous papers outlining and advocating the new Research Domain Criteria project of the U.S. National Institute of Mental Health.Material: An extensive search of the literature shows that not one of these biologically oriented papers ever provides citations or references to authorities such that the claim “mental disorder is brain disorder” is established to the standard required of valid scientific claims.Discussion: As it stands, the notion that mental disorder is brain disorder is unsubstantiated. In particular, no authorities in the field of biological psychiatry have ever demonstrated that they have a formal theory of mental disorder, or a model of mental di...
The Medical journal of Australia, Jan 7, 2010
Jaoa Journal of the American Osteopathic Association, Dec 1, 2010
Osteopathic medicine represents a valid tradition in Western medicine, but there are concerns abo... more Osteopathic medicine represents a valid tradition in Western medicine, but there are concerns about whether it is a viable tradition: will it end up a "poorer cousin" of the allopathic tradition or will it eventually simply be absorbed by the dominant model? This is particularly the case in psychiatry, where osteopathic medicine has never established a firm presence. Currently, the dominant ethos in psychiatry is reductive biologism, which tries to eliminate the notion of mind as a causative factor in behavior. The author's case is that this has failed to give rise to a human-centered psychiatry. His own model of mental disorder, the biocognitive model, is based on a molecular resolution of the mind-body problem (ie, the ancient question of how the immaterial mind and the material body interact). It is manifestly dualist (ie, it accords causative primacy to mind). This is firmly in the osteopathic medical tradition and is offered as a means of developing a distinctive model of psychiatry and hence a holistic general medicine.
Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, 2021
The continued use of the spurious "biopsychosocial model" by psychiatrists is an overt case of se... more The continued use of the spurious "biopsychosocial model" by psychiatrists is an overt case of self-deception.
Ethical Human Psychology and Psychiatry, 2020
Four decades after the publication of the concept of Engel's "biopsychosocial model" for medicine... more Four decades after the publication of the concept of Engel's "biopsychosocial model" for medicine and its subsequent enthusiastic embrace by psychiatry, it is widely accepted as a valid alternative to the reductionism of biological psychiatry. However, unlike models in mainstream science, the original model has not been developed or expanded. Despite widespread efforts to "talk it up," Engel's "biopsychosocial model" has failed to have any lasting impact on psychiatry. The reason is simply that it doesn't exist. The logical flaws in Engel's original concept are explored, and some consequences noted.
Aust NZ J Paychiat, 2021
A response to yet another misleading article on ECT
Ethical Human Psychology and Psychiatry 19: 91-104, 2018
ECT is widely used in the Anglophone world but very much less in the rest of the world. In some p... more ECT is widely used in the Anglophone world but very much less in the rest of the world. In some places, it is so severely restricted as to be a rarity; in others, it is banned. Comparative data indicate there is no scientific justification for this discrepancy. Instead, there is a prima facie case to say that the major impetus behind ECT usage lies in the financial rewards it generates for psychiatrists.
THE CATEGORICAL SYSTEM OF DIAGNOSIS: PERSONALITY DISORDER. , 2007
A critique of the DSM system of categorical diagnosis of personality disorder. Mainstream psychia... more A critique of the DSM system of categorical diagnosis of personality disorder. Mainstream psychiatry does not have a theory of personality or a model of personality disorder. Current systems of classification are wholly descriptive, with no explanatory content whatsoever. Despite the objective gloss of "diagnostic criteria," all decisions are subjective and wide open to bias - and abuse.
Australasian Psychiatry, 2022
N/A
Mad in America, 2022
For as long as there have been records, mentally-disturbed people have been treated abominably. O... more For as long as there have been records, mentally-disturbed people have been treated abominably. One of the oldest approaches has been to lock them away, often permanently. What is the justification for this? I conclude there is no justification and the whole question needs to be reassessed.
Natural Dualism and Mental Disorder
Natural Dualism and Mental Disorder
Natural Dualism and Mental Disorder
At the very heart of psychiatry, people seem totally unconcerned about making claims that, for ex... more At the very heart of psychiatry, people seem totally unconcerned about making claims that, for example, philosophers have never been able to prove.
Psychiatric Times February 23rd 2011, 2011
One of the impulse-control disorders, Intermittend Explosive Disorder includes serious acts of ag... more One of the impulse-control disorders, Intermittend Explosive Disorder includes serious acts of aggression against person or property that are completely out of proportion to any provocation. I submit that the pattern of disturbance outlined by Kessler’s group in their account of IED precisely meets the criteria for a personality disorder. They are searching for an illness when in fact all they have done is to isolate a common personality factor which is evidence of more pervasive, underlying personality disorder.
www.psychiatrictimes.com/view/temper-tantrums-mental-disorder-and-dsm-5-case-caution
Australian & New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry
Ethical Human Psychology and Psychiatry, 2016
A notorious case of a man detained and shackled to his bed while receiving ECT as an involuntary ... more A notorious case of a man detained and shackled to his bed while receiving ECT as an involuntary patient raises critically important questions for institutional psychiatry. These relate to the fundamental premises on which the mentally-disturbed are detained and forced to take treatment against their will. There is, however, very little prospect of psychiatrists willingly answering questions which threaten their livelihood.
Ethical Human Psychology and Psychiatry, 2016
Objective: As part of the philosophical project of distinguishing science and nonscience, an anci... more Objective: As part of the philosophical project of distinguishing science and nonscience, an ancient concept, bullshit, has recently been redefined and explored. This is not science or does it meet a strict definition of pseudoscience. This article explores the extent to which this concept pervades psychiatry. Conclusion: By even the most charitable interpretation of the concept, the institution of modern psychiatry is replete with bullshit.
Ethical Human Psychology and Psychiatry, 2010
Theories of psychiatry do not exist an intellectual vacuum. They must mesh at many points with ot... more Theories of psychiatry do not exist an intellectual vacuum. They must mesh at many points with other bodies of knowledge. Biological psychiatry tries to prove that mental disorder and brain disorder are one and the same thing. This has no rational basis in any accepted theory of mind. This article examines two other philosophical theories that biological psychiatrists might use as their rationale: Dennett’s functionalism and Searle’s natural biologism. However, these avowedly antidualist theories fail, as they secretly rely on irreducibly dualist notions to complete their explanatory accounts of mind. Biological psychiatry is thus an ideology, not a scientific theory.
Ethical Human Psychology and Psychiatry, 2011
The US National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) has recently declared a new research program fo... more The US National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) has recently declared a new research program for psychiatry, the Research Domain Criteria (RDoC), as the successor of the long-standing Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) diagnostic program. However, the new program is based on a series of assumptions that, on analysis, lack any formal scientific standing. Essentially, as presently conceptualized, the RDoC program is no more than ideology masquerading as science, and thus cannot achieve its stated goals. It is argued that the program will lead psychiatry into intellectually sterile areas because it is in fact the wrong research program for the present state of our knowledge.
Ethical Human Psychology and Psychiatry, 2013
Background: The current psychiatric literature carries numerous papers arguing that the correct a... more Background: The current psychiatric literature carries numerous papers arguing that the correct approach to mental disorder is to see it as a special form of brain disorder, whose precise biochemical and genetic causes will be revealed by the normal methods of laboratory science. In particular, these claims are repeated in numerous papers outlining and advocating the new Research Domain Criteria project of the U.S. National Institute of Mental Health.Material: An extensive search of the literature shows that not one of these biologically oriented papers ever provides citations or references to authorities such that the claim “mental disorder is brain disorder” is established to the standard required of valid scientific claims.Discussion: As it stands, the notion that mental disorder is brain disorder is unsubstantiated. In particular, no authorities in the field of biological psychiatry have ever demonstrated that they have a formal theory of mental disorder, or a model of mental di...
The Medical journal of Australia, Jan 7, 2010
Jaoa Journal of the American Osteopathic Association, Dec 1, 2010
Osteopathic medicine represents a valid tradition in Western medicine, but there are concerns abo... more Osteopathic medicine represents a valid tradition in Western medicine, but there are concerns about whether it is a viable tradition: will it end up a "poorer cousin" of the allopathic tradition or will it eventually simply be absorbed by the dominant model? This is particularly the case in psychiatry, where osteopathic medicine has never established a firm presence. Currently, the dominant ethos in psychiatry is reductive biologism, which tries to eliminate the notion of mind as a causative factor in behavior. The author's case is that this has failed to give rise to a human-centered psychiatry. His own model of mental disorder, the biocognitive model, is based on a molecular resolution of the mind-body problem (ie, the ancient question of how the immaterial mind and the material body interact). It is manifestly dualist (ie, it accords causative primacy to mind). This is firmly in the osteopathic medical tradition and is offered as a means of developing a distinctive model of psychiatry and hence a holistic general medicine.
Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, 2021
The continued use of the spurious "biopsychosocial model" by psychiatrists is an overt case of se... more The continued use of the spurious "biopsychosocial model" by psychiatrists is an overt case of self-deception.
Ethical Human Psychology and Psychiatry, 2020
Four decades after the publication of the concept of Engel's "biopsychosocial model" for medicine... more Four decades after the publication of the concept of Engel's "biopsychosocial model" for medicine and its subsequent enthusiastic embrace by psychiatry, it is widely accepted as a valid alternative to the reductionism of biological psychiatry. However, unlike models in mainstream science, the original model has not been developed or expanded. Despite widespread efforts to "talk it up," Engel's "biopsychosocial model" has failed to have any lasting impact on psychiatry. The reason is simply that it doesn't exist. The logical flaws in Engel's original concept are explored, and some consequences noted.
Aust NZ J Paychiat, 2021
A response to yet another misleading article on ECT
Ethical Human Psychology and Psychiatry 19: 91-104, 2018
ECT is widely used in the Anglophone world but very much less in the rest of the world. In some p... more ECT is widely used in the Anglophone world but very much less in the rest of the world. In some places, it is so severely restricted as to be a rarity; in others, it is banned. Comparative data indicate there is no scientific justification for this discrepancy. Instead, there is a prima facie case to say that the major impetus behind ECT usage lies in the financial rewards it generates for psychiatrists.