This is not the same, nor does anyone claim it's the same. People just see "science" and think physics, which is only one standard of science. However physics (70%-80% of it at least, big exceptions are theoretical physics and philosophy of physics) is an empirical science, psychology and psychiatry is not. Or to put it in more clear terms, if proof is how you think of science, then none of the sciences other than physics, chemistry and math are science at all.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outline_of_academic_discipline...

Psychology (and psychiatry) fall under the social sciences. These do not claim to be value-free. In other words, they draw conclusions because people feel those conclusions to be "needed", or socially relevant. Not even valid, in terms of truth versus fiction.

The problem is that with psychiatry you have quite a few studies that point out it's not empirically valid at all:

1) diagnoses of mental illness are made on factors other than the patient or the symptoms:

(for example they are made on available space, how "necessary" bed & meals are for the patient, whether the referring person needs them to be admitted, ...)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosenhan_experiment

Worse, the same goes for involuntary mental treatment and even youth care. All of those interventions, including everything from limiting study choice to locking a kid up for 2 decades, are based on whether a social worker considers such a thing socially needed. These determinations are made not on the child or person, but on the perceived need from the people asking for such a "diagnosis" and intervention. And that's the normal practice, not cases of abuse (which happen regularly, because of course admitting a patient pays, as well as the need for validation these people have)

So, for instance, and as shown in the experiment, psychiatrists will lock up, place in isolation, medicate and use violence against patients to get them to admit/confess to a diagnosis by an earlier mental health professional. This is the normal practice, and not exceptional.

2) mental health treatment does not actually make patients better, or at least, despite 2 centuries of searching, there is no empirical or statistical evidence beyond "professionals say it works".

Or, more dramatically:

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/esmewwang/psychiatric-h...

2b) furthermore effectiveness studies keep, again and again, pointing out that only factors that have nothing to do with mental health theories and nothing to do with mental health treatment matter for the number of afflicted.

Chiefly it is pointed out that mental health clinics tend to get filled. So the number of afflicted is determined by supply of care rather than by patient demand.

Second studies keep pointing out that the relationship with carers matters for outcomes, and that specifically treatment, medicine, duration, ... doesn't matter at all.

Third studies keep pointing out that "care" is used as a coercive social control tool

Fourth when it comes to severity of problems the economic situation matters a lot more than anything the professionals do or know.

3) there are many abuses of the system by mental health professionals, and these have persisted over centuries

"historical" (which should not be taken as "past" in most cases)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ten_Days_in_a_Mad-House

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aktion_T4

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_abuse_of_psychiatry_...

https://www.scmp.com/news/world/europe/article/3016435/angel...

https://www.bbc.com/news/health-48367071

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/resources/idt-sh/norways_hidden_s...
(pedofile using state power to kidnap children and place them ... with himself)

https://www.commissiegeweldjeugdzorg.nl/onderzoek/english/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotherham_child_sexual_exploit...

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-49320260

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/06/05/an-anguishe...

...

4) truth be told there are many abuses of the system by "patients".

Just visit a mental health facility or psychiatrist and ask about the homeless that want to be taken "into care". I guarantee details will be forthcoming.