Psychiatry is not the science of unhappiness
Abstract
Psychiatry risks losing its conceptual boundaries as the scope of its concern expands to include all forms of human unhappiness. This editorial argues that the discipline must distinguish clearly between illness and adversity, recognising that not all suffering is pathological. Drawing on historical and contemporary debates - from Jaspers' foundational dualism to Engel's biopsychosocial model, and from diagnostic inflation to the medicalisation of social distress - the paper contends that integration without limits leads to dissolution. Psychiatry's legitimacy depends not on the eradication of unhappiness but on the understanding of illness and the protection of those whose suffering has crossed the threshold of disease.
Fields of Study & Subjects
Mental Health and Psychiatry
Medicine
History
and Philosophy
Psychology and Mental Health
Publication details
- Journal / source
- BJPsych Bulletin
- Volume
- 50
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 211–213
- Publication date
- 15 January 2026
- Language
- EN