Introduction and Overview of Psychiatry
- Etymology
- Theory and focus
- Ethics
- Approaches
- Treatment

Practitioners and Career Choice in Psychiatry
- Psychiatrists as specialised physicians
- Career choice in the US
- Additional psychiatry subspecialties

Research in Psychiatry
- Interdisciplinary nature of psychiatric research
- Clinical and research psychiatrists
- Utilization of neuroimaging, genetics, and psychopharmacology
- Goal of discovering new treatment methods and classifying new mental disorders

Clinical Application of Psychiatry
- Psychiatric diagnoses and differential diagnosis procedure
- Diagnostic manuals (ICD-10, DSM, Chinese Classification of Mental Disorders)
- Treatment initiation and assessment
- Psychiatric medications and electroconvulsive therapy (ECT)
- Inpatient treatment and trends towards deinstitutionalization

Controversies and Criticisms in Psychiatry
- Criticisms of diagnostic manuals
- Validity and reliability of diagnostic categories
- Cultural bias and medicalization of human distress
- Financial conflicts of interest and political controversies
- Inpatient psychiatric wards and mental health laws