Sluggish Psychiatry

A term for the widespread online practice of casually imputing mental illnesses to others—especially religious, spiritual, or metaphysical believers—as a way to dismiss, humiliate, or pathologize them. Terms like “delusional,” “schizophrenic,” “narcissistic,” “needs therapy,” or “needs a psychiatrist” are thrown around as generic insults, often by people with no clinical training. Sluggish psychiatry treats mental health diagnoses as cheap ammunition, ignoring the real suffering of people with mental illnesses while using clinical language to silence and demean those with different worldviews.

Example: “When she mentioned she practiced meditation, he immediately said she was ‘delusional and needs a psychiatrist.’ Sluggish psychiatry: weaponizing mental health labels to dismiss spiritual practices.”

by Abzugal Nammugal Enkigal March 25, 2026