Anti-psychiatry - Psychiatry As A Pseudo-science

Psychiatry As A Pseudo-science

Many of the above issues lead to the claim that psychiatry is a pseudo-science. According to some philosophers of science (especially Karl Popper), for a theory to qualify as hard science it needs to exhibit the following characteristics:

• parsimony, as straightforward as the phenomena to be explained allow (see Occam's razor);
• empirically testable and falsifiable (see Falsifiability);
• changeable, i.e. if necessary, changes may be made to the theory as new data are discovered;
• progressive, encompasses previous successful descriptions and explains and adds more;
• provisional, i.e. tentative; the theory does not attempt to assert that it is a final description or explanation.

Psychiatrist Colin A. Ross and Alvin Pam maintain that biopsychiatry does not qualify as a science on many counts.