Demedicalizing Depression: An Interview with Milutin Kostić

Mad in America: Rethinking Mental Health

Milutin Kostić is a practicing Serbian psychiatrist trained in the tradition of biological psychiatry who has become a new figure in the critical psychiatry movement. Affiliated with the Institute of Mental Health in Belgrade, Serbia, he is currently a Fulbright scholar working alongside Lisa Cosgrove in Boston to challenge established norms in psychiatry and psychology.

Kostić utilizes his extensive training and traditional research methods to question the fundamental assumptions of his field. For example, Kostić critiques the flawed premises of genetics research in depression, arguing that it overlooks the heterogeneity of human experience. He uses analogies to illustrate how psychiatry often pathologizes normal human emotions, drawing parallels to how medical conditions are misunderstood when the context is ignored, like trying to treat the lungs alone in a society overrun by air pollution.

We will also discuss his latest study, which emphasizes the benefits of de-medicalizing experiences of depression rather than quickly resorting to diagnoses and subsequent treatments with medication or psychotherapy. His research also sheds light on the effects of biological narratives on patient perspectives, the complexities of drug dependency, and the profound impact of psychiatric diagnoses on individual identity.

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