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