In June 2000, the Toronto Globe and Mail ran an article headlined, �The Gap Is Closing Between Psychiatry and Family Medicine,� which reported: �Psychiatrists are wary of the unfamiliarity family doctors often show with mental health problems.� The arti cle quoted Glenn Thompson, the executive director of the Ontario division of the Canadian Mental Health Association, saying that there�s nothing wrong with the primary care physician being �the likely first port of call,� provided the physician is working with a psychiatrist.

The �mental health problems� to which the article refers are those outlined in the DSM. This contrived system of diagnosis and the inevitable assignment of a psychoactive drug prescription is the singular �expertise� that psychiatry has to offer.

Non-psychiatric medical acceptance of psychiatric thinking and practice may come at a steep price. Say J. Allan Hobson and Jonathan A. Leonard, authors of Out of Its Mind, Psychiatry in Crisis, A Call For Reform, �� DSMIV�s authoritative status and detailed nature tends to promote the idea that rote diagnosis and pillpushing are acceptable.�

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