Psychology Now A Shadow of Psychiatry: A Critical Reflection of Psychiatry in Psychological Settings

As psychology is the science of behavior and mental process, as a hub-science it is heavily informed by various practices and or disciplines which helps it in its praxis as a profession. It is in this stance that it is informed, and has been solipsistic becoming one of its informers which is psychiatry, a branch of medicine which deals with mental, emotional and behavioral disorders. The DSM is heavily influenced by psychiatrists and it forms the basis of diagnosis in the psychological praxis and research. It is also noteworthy to highlight that psychiatry has an intricate relationship with pharmaceutical companies ‘Big Pharm' which has its financial fortunes rising in leaps and bounds to over $40 billionUSDin the millennium. The paradox is that drug therapy has become a trap to clients working in cohorts with psychiatrists prescribing drugs and psychologists giving adjunct therapies which support drug use, though some of the drugs have been viewed as more dangerous than the said ‘diseases' they seek to cure. In the same vein, psychologists have proved in some instances that clients perform better with psychological therapy than drug therapy which has eroded the psychological praxis. Hence the thrust of this paper is to recall psychology to psychological principles and avoid traps proffered by psychiatry and its ally the ‘Big Pharm', in so doing it will uphold the ethical standards of psychology as a helping science. The paper via a theoretical review literature will show how psychology has been captured by psychiatry instead of just being informed by it as a hub science.