Psychiatry and the business of madness: an ethical and epistemological accounting

Citation

Macgregor A (2017) Psychiatry and the business of madness: an ethical and epistemological accounting. Review of: Psychiatry and the business of madness: an ethical and epistemological accounting, by Bonnie Burstow, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2015, 302 pp, ISBN 978-1-13-750384-8, ISBN 978-1-13-750383-1. Disability & Society, 32 (6), pp. 933-935. https://doi.org/10.1080/09687599.2017.1321240

Abstract
First paragraph: Burstow’s Psychiatry and the Business of Madness: An Ethical and Epistemological Accounting provides a systematic and thorough deconstruction of the foundations of psychiatry. Questioning the fundamental principles upon which psychiatry rests, Burstow critiques the medical model of mental illness, challenging its hegemony in light of its precarious evidence base. Writing from a ‘Western’ perspective, Burstow interrogates the biomedical model, which individualises and pathologises behaviour, revealing how ‘treatment’ is a form of social control. Consequently, Burstow calls for the abolition of psychiatry, asserting that the ‘regime as a whole is epistemologically flawed and ethically unacceptable’ (227).

Keywords
General Social Sciences; General Health Professions; Health (social science)

Journal
Disability & Society: Volume 32, Issue 6

People

Dr Aisha Macgregor

Research Fellow (Evidence & Evaluation), Dementia and Ageing