Tag: DSM

When I was invited to review “Call me Crazy”, written and directed by Paula J Caplan, a clinical and research psychologist, playwright, author, advocate, filmmaker and activist from the US, I was aware that this was the first play she had ever written and that it had won second place in a national playwriting competition.

No one has come near to finding a genetic basis or a characteristic neurological abnormality for autism, and as a result there is no biological marker or brain scan used to diagnose ASD.

Because the “scientists” who study, categorise, and establish guidelines for autism can’t find anything definitive, they resort to scientism. Over time, it becomes part of our cultural “common sense.”

Both the idea that there are some characteristic brain-based abnormalities for those diagnosed with ADHD, and that the medications used have specific properties that target a disease process—like a chemical imbalance—are false.

Editor’s Note: Over the next several months, Mad in the UK will publish a serialized version of Sami Timimi’s book, Insane Medicine, along with...