On the bright side, we did manage to improve things using the scientific method. Germ theory came from epidemiological evidence in parallel with the discovery of microrganisms. We didn't have to already know how it all works in order to figure out ways to improve outcomes.
I think that what is disturbing to a lot of computing folk is that psychiatry sounds a bit ill-posed. An imposition of magical thinking onto what we assume are complex, chaotic systems. It just doesn't feel right that something so complex can be adjusted with such gross, brute-force methods.
Imagine debugging a computer and saying, "I think your RAM hasn't enough ones in it. I am prescribing this selective ones-uptake inhibitor to restore the balance." On the other hand, we do have plenty of drugs that are a bit closer to saying, "This packet flow seems to be overwhelming the cluster. We can prescribe this traffic filter to interrupt that flow, allowing other functions to return to normal."
> Imagine debugging a computer and saying, "I think your RAM hasn't enough ones in it. I am prescribing this selective ones-uptake inhibitor to restore the balance."
I think that what is disturbing to a lot of computing folk is that psychiatry sounds a bit ill-posed. An imposition of magical thinking onto what we assume are complex, chaotic systems. It just doesn't feel right that something so complex can be adjusted with such gross, brute-force methods.
Imagine debugging a computer and saying, "I think your RAM hasn't enough ones in it. I am prescribing this selective ones-uptake inhibitor to restore the balance." On the other hand, we do have plenty of drugs that are a bit closer to saying, "This packet flow seems to be overwhelming the cluster. We can prescribe this traffic filter to interrupt that flow, allowing other functions to return to normal."