The skewing of psychiatry

Two of the most influential factors in psychiatry over the past decade have been the increasing availability of more sophisticated psychotropic medication and the widespread acceptance of DSM-III. These factors, along with the increased use of computers, have dramatically skewed the field toward an atheoretic symptom/syndrome orientation and away from an appreciation that meaning is an indispensable aspect of human life. This threatens to lead to a serious deterioration in our capacity to communicate with, understand, and treat people. In championing the notion that "biology drives psychology," psychiatry must not lose sight of the fact that often "psychology drives biology." Modest training proposals are offered to counterbalance these trends.