Intelligent psychiatry

While getting caught up recently on my readings at The Last Psychiatrist, I came across this excellent piece on autism treatment:

What Should Really Be Done For Autistic Children?

That perfectly exemplifies why I've been reading that blog, off and on, for....well, it's been several years now. I've actually lost track.

Earlier in my life, I spent a good deal of time immersed in the bullshit known as "psychology", and even declared a psych major at one point. It's nice to read an article like that and be reminded that yes, there are still some thoughtful practitioners and/or researchers out there, and that the entire field hasn't devolved into one massive exercise in self-perpetuating, totally-off-the-rails groupthink.

Psychology feels like one of the great disappointments of my life, and appears to be one of the great failures of the human species, by my way of thinking. What was supposed to be a pure, scientific effort to gain some real, truthful insight into the human mind has, instead, devolved into a parasitic, sociological compliance mechanism, totally enslaved to capitalism and whichever socio-political fad happens to be in fashion at the time. I'm actually tempted to say we should have just stuck with religion for that.

At least, that's the thought. Someone like the Last Psychiatrist tends to put me into a more optimistic mood, at least for a few minutes. Many of the commenters there are quite intelligent as well.