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Psychiatry Is Personal Development With Greater Risk-Benefit
Psychiatry is the form of personal development in which the risk-benefit ration supports the greatest risk taking.
That’s it. All the other forms of coaching, therapy, self exploration modalities, or whatever designation you have for your preferred aid to getting the most out of life…
They are only distinct from psychiatry because their institutionalized risk tolerance is smaller. Because they are generally addressing smaller harms.
I am saying this because people have a lot of issues with psychiatry. A lot of projections. Fears about abuse which are legitimate based on historical precedent. But medical doctors and surgeons have abused patients. So have therapists and gurus. There is nothing in standard psychiatric practice that challenges the tenet ‘do not commit abuse.’
Each personal development modality has tools. In psychiatry, these are mostly tablets, whereas elsewhere it might be breathwork or meditation and other attentional practices. One could argue that at the highest level one should not be using “tools,” but again that would be a criticism of 99% of the personal development industry.
Explaining the Mind
There is no universal explanation for how the mind works (otherwise we would have AGI)…
