h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

psychiatry is the branch of medicine concerned with the diagnosis and treatment of mental disorder. all people do not "flip out" occasionaly and the labelling of people with disorder e.g. schizophrenia is not done to reinforce the sanity of the unlabelled. indeed there have been professors of psychiatry who have suffered from major mental illnesses themselves. what the mentally ill require is treatment and humanity, not stigma and discrimination. although some psychiatric treatments such as electroconvulsive therapy are regarded by some as barbaric, i myself have administered such treatments to patients who would otherwise have died from the physical consequences of their mental disorder e.g. stopping eating and drinking secondary to psychotic depression. ignorance should give way to knowledge in h2g2.com.