Psychologization Quotes

“But I had to think to myself that this was normal, because that was the attitude. I was 19 when I went to see my doctor and I was told it was all in the mind.”
― Hilary Mantel

“You get ill, you are accused of being mentally ill, denied effective treatment, then when you campaign for ‘real science’, you are accused of terrorising those who do not believe in your illness...after all, if your message is that people who say they are suffering from ME or CFS are mentally ill, then accusing them of irrational attacks adds strength to your case.”
― Martin J. Walker, Skewed: Psychiatric Hegemony and the Manufacture of Mental Illness in Multiple Chemical Sensitivity, Gulf War Syndrome, Myalgic Encephalomyelitis and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

“ME’ as a medical entity was later supplanted in the 1980s by psychiatrists such as Simon Wessely, replaced by the label ‘chronic fatigue syndrome’; a fatiguing syndrome of unknown origin that exists, in part, as a result of dysfunctional illness beliefs, as well as social trends and social care systems that reward illness seeking behaviours.”
― Charlotte Blease

“Studies also show that doctors may view ME/CFS patients as hostile or combative when they challenge the incumbent biopsychosocial model of ME or CFS. Yet rather than feeling threatened or worse still, viewing the patient as uncooperative, there is an opportunity to discuss the limitations of medical knowledge. Here, we believe there is an ethical duty for candour and honesty: indeed, where there are clear gaps in medical knowledge the patient voice should have even more standing.”
― Charlotte Blease

“When it comes to hierarchies of illness, evidence shows that chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS)/myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME), features at the bottommost end of the medical “favoured” list. In the 1980s, newspapers helped coin the dismissive label “yuppie flu”; today, ME/CFS sufferers are still being referred to psychotherapists to work on their “faulty” illness beliefs.”
― Charlotte Blease

“Because the doctors I saw couldn't work out what was the matter with me, they made the extraordinary decision that it was not they who were ignorant, it was I who was mad.”
― Hilary Mantel

“my illness was assumed to be some sort of fiction, unless I could prove otherwise”
― Hilary Mantel

“In the last year of his life, Regardie came out rather strongly against the efficacy of Jungian practice, calling active imagination 'plain mental masturbation'—a characterization that plainly calls into question his previous statements as to active imagination’s identity with certain magical practices.”
― Christopher A. Plaisance, Correspondences: Journal for the Study of Esotericism