A combination of The Emperor’s New Drugs, Saving Normal, and How Propaganda Works.

“You must unlearn what you have learned.”

Set A

  1. The brain, like any organ, sometimes does not work as well as it could. Do you agree?
  2. When changes in mood, thinking, or behavior make it hard to work or keep relationships, is professional help appropriate?
  3. Clinicians and researchers often notice the same groups of changes in many people. Is it useful to study those recurring patterns?
  4. Once a recurring pattern is given a shared name, do you think it becomes easier for professionals to talk about its possible causes and treatments?
  5. Research suggests that such a labeled pattern often brings distress or disability and can sometimes be eased with targeted help. Does it sound reasonable to treat that pattern as a possible health concern?
  6. Would you say that psychological disorders are real medical conditions?

Set B

  1. People feel sadness, worry, or even intense grief after events like a breakup, a layoff, or a major move. Would you call these feelings natural reactions, and a normal part of life?
  2. Left-handedness and homosexuality were once labeled disorders, yet today both are viewed as natural human variations. Does that show that ideas about what counts as a disorder can change?
  3. Unlike diabetes or pneumonia, most DSM-5 categories have no lab test, clinicians often disagree on the label, and large pharmaceutical campaigns can widen disorder definitions — 106 disorders in DSM-1 and 237 in DSM-5. Given that mix of uncertainty and outside influence, are you cautious about calling these experiences disorders?
  4. In cognitive behavioral therapy, people practice and learn alternative interpretations of setbacks to reduce anxiety and depression symptoms. If a learned skill can relieve distress, does that hint the condition behaves more like a modifiable state of mind than a fixed disease?
  5. Understanding how these labels can shape life choices, will you question psychiatric authority and seek alternatives before accepting their diagnosis?