I don’t think number of diagnoses is a great metric for or against the progress of psychology. We could outlaw psychology and have zero diagnoses, but that wouldn’t be progress. If we’re criticizing psychology for not “curing” people I think that’s a bit unfair - people may not be cured, but their conditions can be managed. I personally would love to be cured of what ails me, but that doesn’t mean I’m not grateful for the medications and therapy that help me live a more “normal” life than would otherwise be possible.

With the assumption that their problems are real, what's the alternative? Surgery?

> More people than ever are medicated for mental illness, seems like the opposite of progress.

Maybe.

And maybe a bunch of those people were self-medicating with alcohol, nicotine, etc. and now are actually getting real treatment.

Don't get me wrong. I think we overly medicate people--especially school children. I think ADHD is hideously overdiagnosed.

However, I've also seen the flip side. People who were completely disconnected from reality who suddenly are back to their "normal" selves with just a small amount of medication.

Clinical Psychology is just one part of the field of Psychology but even there can be progress in many directions - better diagnosis, less reported issues due to better prevention, less side-effects from treatments, or just pure metrics like higher life satisfaction, less suicides etc.

The field of psychology is far larger than just clinical psychology. So much larger that I would recommend looking it up on Wikipedia instead of listing things here.