USA TODAY: The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders has been published since 1952 by the American Psychiatric Association to identify and classify mental disorders. Its last major revision was in 1994. With every revision, there are critics.
“The reason there is so much controversy about DSM-5 is that psychiatric diagnosis has become, if anything, too important — not only in clinical decisions but also in school services, disability and in the courtroom. There’s a tremendous amount at stake,” says [psychiatrist Allen]Frances, of Coronado, Calif., a professor emeritus at Duke University in Durham, N.C.
Because the DSM contains a detailed list of psychiatric disorders, it’s a guidebook for the U.S. health care system and insurance coverage. Revisions aren’t taken lightly. This latest took more than a decade and included more than 1,500 experts and extensive public comment… (more)
It’s a public travesty that psychiatry is not held to the same scientific standards as other branches of medicine. Just because you are not considered mentally perfect does not mean you are mentally ill but, no matter what, the drug companies will find an expensive pill to help you cope with your imperfectness.
You are so right! Psychiatry is loaded with judgmental garbage — allowing the powerful to further dominate the weak or inconvenient. Why do you think that the NRA is so hot to trot on “mental illness”? – More power for the oligarchy — and those folks with the wrong point of view will be easily drugged or “hospitalized” when they become inconvenient.