The idea that there is one &quot;mainstream psychiatry&quot; is somewhat naive. It varies quite a bit from country to country, and the US does it somewhat horribly.<p>Don&#x27;t take my word for it, the man who chaired the committee for the DSM-V thinks so (nd he wrote a book about it called &quot;Saving Normal&quot;. Regardless of what you think about psychiatry from a theoretical perspective (e.g. what studies show), there is a MASSIVE gap between what practicing psychiatrists do and what happens in studies. As a country we are over-diagnosed (the DSM says x% of the population will have a given condition based on clinical research, yet somehow a massively larger # of people will be prescribed pills for it due to incompetent doctors and drug company advertising..<p>On top of that we have almost no idea what the mechanism of action is for any of these drugs. We take people, let&#x27;s look at veterans for example, who have gone through traumatic events and say: &quot;I guess going through that war there messed up some chemicals, take these!&quot;. It turns out there is a lot more in the way of treatment than just pills. At the same time these people are living in the streets and have no connection to community or family. There are more dimensions to mental illness than just chemicals in the brain. Here&#x27;s an interesting non-pill related approach that&#x27;s apparently helped some vets who were beyond treatment from pills ( <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.nytimes.com&#x2F;2016&#x2F;01&#x2F;31&#x2F;magazine&#x2F;what-does-a-parrot-know-about-ptsd.html" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.nytimes.com&#x2F;2016&#x2F;01&#x2F;31&#x2F;magazine&#x2F;what-does-a-parro...</a> ).<p>Here&#x27;s another example, in convenient peer-review form &quot;The findings, from by far the most rigorous trial to date conducted in the United States, concluded that schizophrenia patients who received a program intended to keep dosages of antipsychotic medication as low as possible and emphasize one-on-one talk therapy and family support made greater strides in recovery over the first two years of treatment than patients who got the usual drug-focused care.&quot; <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.nytimes.com&#x2F;2015&#x2F;10&#x2F;20&#x2F;health&#x2F;talk-therapy-found-to-ease-schizophrenia.html" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.nytimes.com&#x2F;2015&#x2F;10&#x2F;20&#x2F;health&#x2F;talk-therapy-found-...</a><p>Unfortunately I can only open the door here, the material is complex and voluminous. I do encourage you to research and read on your own. The foundations of mainstream psych in American are shaky, and drug companies truly have an undue amount of influence in shaping research and policy.