Checklists of Behaviors

"Because there are no biological tests, markers or known causes for most mental illnesses, who is counted as ill depends almost entirely on frequently changing checklists of behaviors that the DSM considers as symptoms of mental disorder.
…
"The vast broadening of the definition of mental disorders has its skeptics, myself included, who are suspicious of the motivations of the APA and the drug companies that may view the expanding sweep of mental disorders like a lumber company lusting after a redwood forest. But unlike the environment, with its leagues of watchdogs, the medicalization of human foibles has few challengers. That's too bad: The misdiagnosis of mental illness often leaves a lasting trail in medical records open to schools, employers, insurance companies and courts."

—By Stuart A. Kirk (professor of social welfare at UCLA and coauthor of The Selling of DSM and Making Us Crazy), August 14, 2005, "Are we all going mad, or are the experts crazy?" The Los Angeles Times