title: Witches, multiple personalities, and other psychiatric artifacts.
abstract: Contemporary psychiatric misdirections derived primarily from standard medical errors of oversimplification, misplaced emphasis, and invention are reviewed. These particular errors, however, were in part prompted and sustained by the sociocultural fads and fashions of the day. The results have been disastrous for everyone--patients, families, the public and psychiatry itself.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science, Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions, Baltimore, MD 21287-7413, USA.
authors.forename: P R
authors.initials: PR
authors.lastname: McHugh
mesh_terms: D009105:Dissociative Identity Disorder / Q000209:etiology*; D005260:Female; D005783:Gender Identity; D049670:History, 17th Century; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000209:etiology*; D011570:Psychiatry / Q000266:history; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000209:etiology; D014481:United States; D018599:Witchcraft / Q000266:history*