Psychiatric Bible (DSM-IV) Undergoes Revisions

Are you in doubt as to what is or isn’t a mental disease? Evidently, so are the psychiatrists. They’re in the process of editing—and expanding—their Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, yet again.

Read “Psychiatrists Revise the Book of Human Troubles,” and you will see how “disorders” are judged. Psychiatrists bring up the symptoms and discuss whether or not that condition (excessive nose picking, or chronic lateness—not kidding) qualifies as a disorder. There are “political, social and financial” influences.”

And this is why “parity” just doesn’t work. If someone has a case of measles, there’s no doubt about it. The evidence is right there on the body. Broken bones, same. Bacterial infections, same. No one votes on it. Research, yes. Observation, sure. But it isn’t just “opinion.”

As the leading historian of psychiatry, Edward Shorter, phrased it: “What you have in the end is this process of sorting the deck of symptoms into syndromes, and the outcome all depends on how the cards fall.”

—Based on an article by Benedict Carey, “Psychiatrists Revise the Book of Human Troubles,” December 17, 2008, nytimes.com