What is psychiatry? What does a psychiatrist actually do? Few people can answer these basic questions. Psychiatry is a familiar but poorly understood subject. It is often portrayed as complex and mysterious. And yet, psychiatry is a long-established branch of the medical profession.



Psychiatrists have tended to cloak themselves in esoteric language that distances the general public. Introducing Psychiatry offers a clear guide to psychiatric classifications and treatments of mental disturbances. It traces psychiatry's history, the issues of antipsychiatry and other social criticisms, and surveys psychiatry's future in the postmodern digital age.