Diagnostic and Statistical Manual Critique
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual Critique
The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) has a long history, starting back during World War II. This paper will give a brief history of the DSM and provide some context for the DSM such as: What is it? What is it used for? Who uses it and why? DSM and diagnoses strengths and challenges will also be discussed. Some interesting literature about the DSM and it’s challenges will also be discussed.
A big thing happened in the 1940’s during World War II, the classification of mental illness drastically changed. Grob (1991) (as cited in Clegg, 2012) stated “that a large number of psychiatrists involved in treating war-related psychological trauma found success in applying psychodynamic therapies to psychogenic disorders and, as a result, these clinicians became dissatisfied with the existing biologically oriented, symptom-based classification system.” This shifted the practice of psychiatry from treating patients with severe psychoses in public mental hospitals milder conditions, hoping that early treatment would prevent more serious mental illnesses. Accordingly, “psychodynamic and psychosocial models, which considered mental illness to be the consequence of a mixture of noxious environment and intrapsychic conflict, became dominant in the postwar years” (First, 2010).
The American Psychiatric Association Committee on Nomenclature and Statistics published as the first edition of Diagnostic and Statistical Manual: Mental Disorders (DSM-I), in 1952. DSM-I contained a glossary of descriptions of the diagnostic categories and was the first official manual of mental disorders to focus on clinical utility. In addition to incorporating psychoanalytical concepts into its definition of psychoneurosis, it conceptualized all psychological disorders as reactions. American Psychiatric Association (2014) claims that the “use of the term ‘reaction’ throughout DSM-I reflected the influence
The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) has a long history, starting back during World War II. This paper will give a brief history of the DSM and provide some context for the DSM such as: What is it? What is it used for? Who uses it and why? DSM and diagnoses strengths and challenges will also be discussed. Some interesting literature about the DSM and it’s challenges will also be discussed.
A big thing happened in the 1940’s during World War II, the classification of mental illness drastically changed. Grob (1991) (as cited in Clegg, 2012) stated “that a large number of psychiatrists involved in treating war-related psychological trauma found success in applying psychodynamic therapies to psychogenic disorders and, as a result, these clinicians became dissatisfied with the existing biologically oriented, symptom-based classification system.” This shifted the practice of psychiatry from treating patients with severe psychoses in public mental hospitals milder conditions, hoping that early treatment would prevent more serious mental illnesses. Accordingly, “psychodynamic and psychosocial models, which considered mental illness to be the consequence of a mixture of noxious environment and intrapsychic conflict, became dominant in the postwar years” (First, 2010).
The American Psychiatric Association Committee on Nomenclature and Statistics published as the first edition of Diagnostic and Statistical Manual: Mental Disorders (DSM-I), in 1952. DSM-I contained a glossary of descriptions of the diagnostic categories and was the first official manual of mental disorders to focus on clinical utility. In addition to incorporating psychoanalytical concepts into its definition of psychoneurosis, it conceptualized all psychological disorders as reactions. American Psychiatric Association (2014) claims that the “use of the term ‘reaction’ throughout DSM-I reflected the influence