There was a brief stint in college when I thought I wanted to be a psychiatrist. I think in retrospect it was an attempt to turn my philosophical inclinations to a practical purpose. But it quickly became clear, in my opinion, that the field does not fully understand itself; it is based on more unproven premises than probably any other field of science, or even 'social science'. With the exception of some kinds of disease (possibly schizophrenia), a psychiatrist's ability seems to vary independently of his education. Success comes from being wise and understanding human nature, knowing how to talk to people.
Psychiatry doesn't understand that people have been caring about mental health for millennia, even if it wasn't called mental health, and so the field is not lindy at all. This sounds crazy but they should really be looking back to the roles/practices of priests, even shamans, just to try and get some semblance of an idea of what works and what doesn't...because they currently have absolutely no idea.
I would except CBT from this critique...it does actually seem to be a remarkable treatment (it is also lindy).