The crazy psychiatry

On the lack of spirituality, conversation and psychotherapy

Johan Stiernstedt

Cardboard, 244 pages

From pills and electrotherapy to healing conversations

For all those people who seek psychiatric care, it should be a right to talk about their inner feelings when their soul is suffering. It is all too easy to get a prescription, but more difficult to get conversational support or psychotherapy. Patients are met by a medication-fixated and overloaded organization that risks treating the often vulnerable individual like a machine.

As a new psychiatrist, Johan Stiernstedt wanted to get to know his patients. He soon realized that he had become part of a system where conversations mostly focused on medication, side effects, and sick leave. Feelings, thoughts, and conversations about life situations had become an exception.

Today, one in six Swedes takes psychotropic drugs, and consumption is increasing rapidly. At the same time, there is an equally sharp increase in sick leave for psychiatric diagnoses. The number of suicides among young adults has been increasing steadily for many years, and within this group, psychotropic drug consumption has also increased the most. Is this really a reasonable development?

Johan Stiernstedt is a psychiatrist and licensed psychotherapist. He has long worked as a senior physician in psychiatric outpatient care. For the past ten years, he has mainly been active as a private psychotherapist. The book is based on his experiences from both professional roles.

Review:

Published in BTJ issue no. 17, 2020.

Associate Professor Margareta Fridstjerna

"How is psychiatric care organized? What beliefs guide the choice of treatment methods? Are there other alternatives? Johan Stiernstedt, psychiatrist and licensed psychotherapist, critically examines today's psychiatry based on his experiences from his work as a senior physician in psychiatric outpatient care and as a private psychotherapist. Organizationally, new public management has intruded into psychiatry during the 1990s, which has caused bureaucratization, where relationships between patients and staff have been streamlined. The prescription of psychotropic drugs has increased significantly, as have the sick leave rates. The author believes that the one-sided biological perspective is flawed and that a humanistic and spiritual view of man should change the focus."

Reviews:

“The author's presence and his commitment permeate the twenty-seven chapters”

“In summary, this is a thought-provoking debate book where the serious problems in today's psychiatry are discussed in a personal and engaging way.”

“The book The Crazy Psychiatry opens up deep dimensions of being human, which makes psychiatry appear limited and soulless.”

"Johan Stiernstedt's "Crazy Psychiatry" is a breath of fresh air in a sickening healthcare system with numbing pharmaceuticals. In a light-hearted and educational way, the book highlights the human madness in the very structure of psychiatry and shows a more humane way forward with another, more modern and reality-based view of humanity as a basis. - Read it! Spread it and debate it - not least within healthcare!" ".... a personal, rich and very easy-to-read debate book about the shortcomings and possibilities of psychiatry."

Votes about the book:

"A debate book about the shortcomings and possibilities of psychiatry, personal, diverse and thought-provoking."/ Björn Wrangsjö, Associate Professor of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry

"Hi Johan, I just wanted to thank you for a fantastic book! I work in the field myself and am so impressed by your courage to challenge and ask such important questions. I will benefit greatly from your book, as you describe in such a beautiful and clear way the difference between the many concepts that are used today without one really knowing if they mean the same thing - spirituality-religion, brain-consciousness."

“Pioneering work in psychiatry”

"An accessible book with heavy and vital content that carries far beyond the boundaries of psychiatry. Finally, one would like to exclaim. I first borrowed the book, but it is so inspiring that I bought it as inspiration, reference and as a tip for others to read."

"It is a book that is needed, that dares to assert so-called soft values ​​and that does so with a broad and diverse factual basis, that is empirical in its orientation. The soul is allowed to take its place, but without fluff."

“Most important book in a long time!”

"An incredibly important book! Psychiatry, and not least the pharmaceutical industry, has been criticized before. But now it is being done by one of "their own" and that makes it even more credible. Psychiatry is a disaster! There are no extenuating excuses. Here they are presented objectively and easily understood by the average person." "Psychiatry should be closed down! Or rebuilt from scratch. This book explains why."

“A very impressive read.”

“Just have to thank you again for such an incredibly important book.”

"I work as a psychotherapist myself and have rarely read something so inspiring, hopeful and that clearly highlights the paradigm shift that is so necessary in so many parts of healthcare and in society at large. I have a new idol, thank you!"

“Extremely interesting. Exciting and scary at the same time. Also hopeless… and hopeful.”

“Your work gives hope to many, something that can be the difference between life and death for the individual.”

“I would highly recommend this book. I have advertised it at my workplace. Very good”

“Highly recommended!”

“Important and comprehensive book.”

"It is so good and needed to spark debate. Psychiatry cannot be allowed to 'work' as it does now, i.e. with mainly pills and without a focus on conversations and root causes."

“An urgent and such a good book. Highly recommended.”

“It's really good! It's completely up to date.”

“The book is great and important, so if you haven't already read it, do so and order it!”

"This book is incredibly good and extremely important! It puts into words psychiatry, which is a completely "sick" business that has passed its best-before date long ago. I highly recommend this book to everyone!"

"A very readable book. All honor!"

"Read. Extremely urgent."

“It is so amazing and important.”

"Such beautiful language, easy to absorb. Your holistic perspective really comes through in all the different aspects that you frame! So many people need to read this book and I hope it does."

“Line read!”

“Your book is fantastic and I have been thinking for a long time about how we can change mental health care in Sweden.”

“I just have to write and say THANK YOU for making this book!”

"I've read your book and everything fits so well with the journey we've been on with my now 25-year-old and with anxiety problems."

"I am so grateful that someone dares to write this book, not least for the sake of our young people."

“Thank you for taking on this difficult and sensitive topic.”

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