The Perils of Wizardry

As biobehavioral scientists, psychiatrists bear a major responsibility in the current revolution involving our understanding of the brain and human behavior. Based on his experience in the courtroom, the author sees psychiatry’s primary focus on treatment and its penchant for diagnostic labeling as dangerous; he is concerned that the field may lose sight of the social determinants of behavior. He calls upon psychiatrists to acknowledge and respond to the ethical challenges posed by their great power, their “wizardry,” in the use of behavior modification, psychosurgery, and chemotherapy.