A draft of the new classification system for psychiatry is now public. Rarely has a set of dry guidelines from Washington DC caused such consternation. Outlets from The New York Times to the Hindustan Times heralded its arrival. You would think it was the work of the World Bank or International Monetary Fund, not a bunch of shrinks.
Already there is a howl of protest about the unending loosening of mental illness. There are fears mental illness will become the new normal. This would do wonders for reducing stigma, at the very least, but our natural resilience could be rendered powerless by the culture of therapy. We would be the nation that moved from Anzac to Prozac in a century, the critics say.
Such fanfare makes sense. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders is as much a cultural institution as a clinical one. As an arbiter of what is normal and what is not, it plays an important role in insurance and disability determinations and can bear on criminal culpability in the courtroom. Keep reading
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