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Awais Aftab

What Awais Aftab thinks about Psychotherapy

@awais-aftab · 17 positions · 0 changes of mind

Psychiatrist and clinical assistant professor at Case Western Reserve University. Writes Psychiatry at the Margins on the philosophical and scientific debates inside psychiatry and the psy-sciences.

Everything they publish, on ppll ↗

Awais Aftab did not write this page.

We collected these quotes from things they published elsewhere, and every quote links to where it was said. They have no account here and have not endorsed this site. Quotes are word for word; the short line under each one is our own restatement, not their wording. Their own site. Is this you? Claim it or ask us to remove it. Or tell us what is wrong here.

7 dated positions, 2025 to 2026, in their own words. Our reading of what Awais Aftab has said — not written or endorsed by them.

The line under a date shows how recently it was said: empty within a month, full after three years.

  1. Our readingNo approach to mental healthcare exceeds being highly imperfect, and anyone claiming otherwise is dishonest or mistaken.

    Their wordsAnyone selling you anything better than 'highly imperfect' in the realm of mental healthcare is a fool or a grifter.

    ↗Maybe Don’t Ask Your Doctor if Zoloft Is Right for Youpsychiatrymargins.com 2nd of 3 in this piece

  2. 2 weeks earlier

  3. Our readingRestructuring the DSM's chapter organization to add categories like a postpartum chapter is blocked only by self-imposed rules and conventions, not by any deeper constraint.

    Their wordsThe only thing stopping the DSM is a bunch of self-imposed rules and conventions.

    ↗Postpartum Psychosis and Diagnostic Sclerosispsychiatrymargins.com 1st of 3 in this piece

  5. Our readingThe DSM's revision process has no consistent standard for when practical or political consequences should be allowed to override the available evidence.

    Their wordsThere is no consistency, no respect for evidence, no clear bar for when downstream implications matter and when they don't.

    ↗Postpartum Psychosis and Diagnostic Sclerosispsychiatrymargins.com 2nd of 3 in this piece

  6. 2 months earlier

  7. Our readingA prescriber cannot outsource containment to the therapy hour: the emotional and relational dynamics are part of prescribing, not an intrusion on it.

    Their wordsThe emotional and relational dynamics are not an intrusion upon the work of prescribing. They are a part of the work itself.

    ↗The Fantasy of Being "Just" a Psychiatric Prescriberpsychiatrymargins.com

  8. 10 months earlier

  9. Our readingClinical diagnosis can have a therapeutic effect independent of any other intervention.

    Their wordsTheir experiences highlight a striking, neglected and unchristened medical phenomenon: The therapeutic effect of a clinical diagnosis, independent of any other intervention, where clinical diagnosis refers to situating the person's experiences into a clinical category by a clinician or the patient.

    ↗The Rumpelstiltskin effect: therapeutic repercussions of clinical diagnosis (with 1 co-authors)doi.org All 3 from this paper

  11. Our readingDiagnoses that have therapeutic effects are medical interventions and should be treated and researched as such.

    Their wordsIf a clinical diagnosis can have a therapeutic effect, then, at least in some instances, diagnoses are medical interventions in themselves and ought to be treated and researched as such, with an eye to both positive effects and potential iatrogenic harms.

    ↗The Rumpelstiltskin effect: therapeutic repercussions of clinical diagnosis (with 1 co-authors)doi.org All 3 from this paper

  13. Our readingSelf-diagnosis is an attempt to secure the therapeutic effect of a medical intervention patients cannot officially access.

    Their wordsLikewise, self-diagnosis should be understood as an attempt to secure the therapeutic effect of a medical intervention to which patients do not have official access.

    ↗The Rumpelstiltskin effect: therapeutic repercussions of clinical diagnosis (with 1 co-authors)doi.org All 3 from this paper

How recent

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