For two decades, I’ve maintained a list of quotes I like by poets, writers, and thinkers I find interesting. This post is part of that series. All posts in the series are organized alphabetically. Some poets and writers have their own dedicated pages.

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As for you, look into your soul. Don’t be shy. Be honest. Be brutal. — Nassir Ghaemi

Awards and rewards aren’t given for great achievements, as society claims, but for small ones. — Nassir Ghaemi

Find your solace inside yourself, not outside. — Nassir Ghaemi

Freud never won a Nobel prize; they gave it to the fellow who introduced frontal lobotomy. — Nassir Ghaemi

It’s an unjust world. How will you live in it? — Nassir Ghaemi

Our ideals are mouthed and empty. — Nassir Ghaemi

Psychiatry is plagued deeply by its self-deception. — Nassir Ghaemi

Society punishes those who improve it. — Nassir Ghaemi

The DSM was and is a social construction, as I said, created by the profession for its own social purposes. — Nassir Ghaemi

There are no DSMs as diagnostic straightjackets in any medical specialty except psychiatry. — Nassir Ghaemi

When we make up our phenotypes for social, economic, and professional purposes why should genetics, biology, neuroimaging, pharmacology, and even psychotherapies correlate with it? — Nassir Ghaemi

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Source: Dr. Nassir Ghaemi’s letter to a medical student who is considering entering the field of psychiatry.