‘Mental ill-being, suffering and disturbance, at all degrees of severity, are affected by the level of inequality in society and by social hardship.’ lamy‘Mental ill-being, suffering and disturbance, at all degrees of severity, are affected by the level of inequality in society and by social hardship.’ lamyLettersWhen it comes to mental health labels, we need to tread lightly Readers respond to a long read article by Gavin Francis in which he voices concern that current approaches to labelling and diagnosis may be doing more harm than goodThank you, Gavin Francis, for your long read (‘What I see in clinic is never a set of labels’: are we in danger of overdiagnosing mental illness?, 10 February). It powerfully captures some of the traps modern psychiatry finds itself in and beautifully describes the all-important – and indeed, threatened – relationship at the heart of any good doctor’s practice. I have been a psychiatrist and psychotherapist for over 40 years and would like to make two points about the “epidemic” of mental illness now upon us. First, there is a mass of evidence that shows mental ill-being, suffering and disturbance, at all degrees of severity, are affected by the level of inequality in society and by social hardship such as poverty, violence and discrimination.
