In fact, according to the new definitions, everyone could be accused of having some form of this disease by at least one hungry psychotherapist, psychological counselor, psychiatric social worker, or addiction treatment group. 20 million addicted to gambling. 75 million addicted to tobacco. 40 million suffering from PMS and postpartum depression. Those numbers exceed the population of the United States by about 140 million cases of disease, which until recently were not even considered disease.
Psychological therapists fuel the industry with propaganda and with new definitions of disease.
And they feed their pockets through expensive treatment programs that have not yet proven themselves to be any more effective than no treatment at all. The subtitle tells what the book is about. This myth, now widely advertised and widely accepted, is neither helpfully compassionate nor scientifically valid. It promotes false beliefs and inappropriate attitudes as well as harmful, wasteful, and ineffective social policies. On the contrary, both independent and government research show expensive disease-oriented treatment programs to be largely a waste of money and human resources.