Psychiatrists have long speculated about the biological roots of mental disorders. They've spent countless hours and dollars trying to describe the biology of schizophrenia, depression, criminality, and mania. But, argues Dr. Gordon Warme, all of this effort is profoundly misguided. There's not a scrap of hard evidence to support the notion that mental disorders are biologically determined.
Despite this lack of evidence, the myth of mental "disease" is firmly entrenched in our culture and in our medicine. Today, only "real" medical treatments -- drugs, mainly -- are acceptable to both doctors and patients. And yet, many good psychiatrists, loath though they might be to admit it, rely not on drugs but on enchantment. Secretly, they consider their best therapeutic weapons to be wise talk, optimism, and honesty.