Thanks to DTC advertising, people began taking seizure drugs like Topamax and Lyrica for everyday pain or headaches and antipsychotics — hello? — for everyday blues or mood problems. They started taking monoclonal antibodies made from genetically engineered hamster cells like Humira when they didn’t have to. And even though FDA mandated risk disclosures — brain bleeds, sudden death, difficulty breathing, stomach bleeding, liver failure, kidney failure, muscle breakdown, fainting, hallucinations, the drugs perversely sold more either because ad frequency itself sells or because people like the identity in having a disease.

Soon anxiety graduated to depression which graduated to bipolar disorder. Children got schizophrenia and depression like adults, and adults got ADHD like kids. And it didn’t stop there. If the depression you or your kid had didn’t go away — maybe because it wasn’t depression in the first place, but a thing called “life” — you needed to add a drug like Abilify or Seroquel on to the original drug(s) because your depression was “treatment resistant.”

One of the most disturbing legacies of the use of torture against national security detainees in US custody has been participation of psychologists in interrogation. That role has been endorsed by the American Psychological Association, adding a veneer of professionalism to the infliction of horrific abuse on detainees.

But now the very foundation of the APA’s position has been undermined with the release this month of its own Specialty Guidelines for Forensic Psychology. Though directed principally toward psychologists who engage in evaluations for courts and administrative bodies, such as for child custody and competency to stand trial, the new guidelines’ emphasis on integrity, truthfulness, disclosure, prevention of harm and avoidance of conflicts of interest repudiates central features of psychologists’ participation in interrogation.