I enjoy your thoughts here,

I enjoy your thoughts here, Nassir, and look forward to reading your book.

But I have to disagree with your last point. In my opinion, your profession has lost credibility due to widespread incompetence. This opinion is based, in part, from talking with hundreds of people who have pursued mental healthcare in the last eight years. It's also based on familiarity with protocols--and knowing how few docs follow them.

Thanks also to psychiatrists who "treat one molecule" without understanding that there is a body attached, we have a nation of people suffering needless side effects and swearing off medication forever. Medication that could enhance their lives tremendously.

These people largely can't believe that their highly educated physicians can be so inept (cognitive dissonance), so they blame the medication, pharma, and the researchers who develop the medications.

We've lost a few generations to this clinical ineptitude and likely a few generations more, if grandstanding politicians and psychiatrists who don't "get it" have their way. As long as ignorant people, including psychiatrists, keep playing into the hands of politicians whose campaigns are funded by insurance companies, we all stand to lose the marvelous advances that neuroscience has given us. And that would be a grave tragedy.