2 Quotes by Susan Cahalan

Many research psychiatristsI've interviewed liken the DSM diagnoses to our understanding of headaches - we have symptoms with no knowledge of the underlying cause. Y9u ca, for example, think you have merely a headache when you in fact have a brain tumor. Pop an Advil and your headache might go away, but you've still got a metastasizing mass in your skull. Without a way to find that tumor, how do we tell the difference?

Psychiatry at its best is what all medicine needs more of - humanity, art, listening, and empathy - but at its worst it is driven by fear, judgement, and hubris. In the end, the takeaway, repeated again and again in my interviews is: Medicine in general, and psychiatry in particular, is as mysterious and soulful as it is scientific.