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Review
. 2023 Apr;47(2):90-94.
doi: 10.1192/bjb.2022.60.

Not doomed: sociology and psychiatry, and ignorance and expertise

George Ikkos  1
Affiliations
Review

Not doomed: sociology and psychiatry, and ignorance and expertise

George Ikkos. BJPsych Bull. 2023 Apr.

Abstract

This paper presents and responds to On the Heels of Ignorance, a sociological study which identifies five fundamental epistemological paradigm changes in American psychiatry in the service of its survival and details several tactics that have been employed to facilitate these professional reinventions. Issues raised in this presentation include the relationship between psychiatry, society and the state, and the nature and significance of psychiatric expertise. The dynamic of these relationships and the complexities of the required expertise create their own challenges for the advancement and professional accountability of the specialty. The conclusion suggests some future imperatives.

Keywords: Aetiology; clinical services; history of psychiatry; psychiatric epistemology; sociology of knowledge.

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Conflict of interest statement

None.

References

    1. Whooley I. On the Heels of Ignorance: Psychiatry and the Politics of Not Knowing. University of Chicago Press, 2018.
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    1. Bourke J. Historical perspectives on mental health and psychiatry. In Mind, State and Society: Social History of Psychiatry and Mental Health in Britain 1960–2010 (eds Ikkos G, Bouras N): 3–12. Cambridge University Press, 2021.
    1. Ikkos G, Dave S. Reflection: 1979 and psychiatry. News and Notes: Newsletter of the Royal College of Psychiatrists’ History of Psychiatry Special Interest Group. 2021; 12: 12–3.
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