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Article: Is mental illness a myth?
- Article from:
- USA TODAY
- Article date:
- July 1, 1993
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1993 Society for the Advancement of Education. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Psychiatrists, physicians, and lawyers are among those arguing over whether deviant, dangerous, or self-destructive behavior has a biological basis.
There has been a running debate over the validity of "mental illness" and its status in the marketplace of ideas. This is to some extent the culmination of many years of criticism of the view that mental illnesses are real illnesses - termed the "medical model" - and more than a decade of efforts in biological psychiatry aimed at demonstrating that they do indeed have a biological basis. The best evidence is that most of the behaviors called mental illnesses are not illnesses and that the skepticism regarding ...