Bessel van der Kolk on the “Pseudocertainties” of Psychiatric Diagnoses

Our great teacher [at the Massachusetts Mental Health Center], Elvin Semrad, actively discouraged us from reading psychiatry textbooks during our first year [of training]. Semrad did not want our perceptions of reality to become obscured by the pseudocertainties of psychiatric diagnoses.

I remember asking him once: “What would you call this patient — schizophrenic or schizoaffective?” He paused and stroked his chin, apparently deep in thought.

“I think I’d call him Michael McIntyre,” he replied.

from Van der Kolk, B. A. (2015). The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma. Penguin Books.