Misdiagnosing psychiatry

Re “Are we all going mad, or are the experts crazy?” Opinion, Aug. 14

Stuart A. Kirk thinks psychiatry and drug companies find illnesses wherever they go. His rhetoric misleads the public. To equate any diagnosis with being crazy and in need of drugs misrepresents psychiatrists and, dare I say, drug companies. Mental disorders are not expectable responses to some life event. A person upset about getting fired is not mentally ill just because it is upsetting, any more than a person who is coughing has cancer. The clinician’s job is to make a diagnosis -- or none. There are a lot more psychiatrists trying to help people accept a “good enough” outcome than there are ones trying to treat the ups and downs of life.

RICHARD MOLDAWSKY MD

Aliso Viejo