Mental illness does exist

Spence is right to criticize the profusion of diagnostic labels in psychiatry. Psychiatry is becoming a laughing stock in the media and within the medical profession because of its medicalisation of everyday complaints. There is no point in laying the blame at the hands of the drug companies -- psychiatrists are to blame not only for the swelling ranks of the somewhat dubious classification systems but also for the multitude of 'therapies' that follow. Diagnostic categories should be reduced to a few major catagories only.

There are diagnoses --clinical depression is not the same as being 'fed up', and hypomania is more than being 'overenthusiastic'. Besides, patients suffer from these serious conditions and seek help. But spare me from 'shyness disorder', 'anger disorder' and the like (the list is endless). Often successful individuals have 'labels' yet no person would describe them as ill (narcissistic rock star, obsessional cardiologist). Time to set the record straight and demolish the labels and the psychobabble.