The prospect that the psychiatric profession has hurt rather than helped many of its patients is incredibly disheartening; however, wrong diagnoses and improper treatment are all too common errors within the field. Author René Muller presents a revealing look into how psychiatry has failed a great majority of patients, all the while recognizing the valiant efforts made by psychiatrists who maintain their integrity and serve their patients well. The result is an enlightening critique of the profession—one that pits criticism of psychiatry's current biological reduction and exaggerated promises against the accumulated wisdom of a profession that has struggled for a century and a half to understand and help those with mental illness.

Muller's analysis is drawn from the experience of having evaluated scores of emergency room patients over the course of 10 years. The patients' stories reveal that many of these individuals have been diminished or damaged as a result of a wrong diagnosis and improper medication. Individual chapters throughout Doing Psychiatry Wrong explains how and why the practice of psychiatry has changed, how psychiatry mistreats depression, misdiagnoses of schizophrenia, and, finally, how psychiatry can be practiced so that all patients are helped by the medical profession rather than harmed.