Should new mental illness be made up in secret or debated openly? |
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America’s psychiatric bible, the “Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders” (DSM), is a masterwork of “consensus science” over empirical evidence. For instance, Toronto psychologist Ken Zucker is the foremost proponent of reparative therapy for gender-variant children, even though gender variance resolves in most children with or without reparative therapy. He claims we should ignore the empirical evidence and rely on his “clinical wisdom” instead. Parents who fall for this nonsense are on his clinic’s waiting list right now, waiting to subject their own children to all kinds of misery in order to “cure” them. This DSM ritual document has taken on great significance in the last half century. The fates of transgender people are just one of the issues that lay ahead. English Professor Christopher Lane at Northwestern University discusses the argument about whether the next revision of should be done openly and transparently so mental health professionals and the public could follow along, or whether the debates should be held in secret.
This may sound like an arcane, insignificant spat about nomenclature. But the manual is in fact terribly important, and the debates taking place have far-reaching consequences. Published by the American Psychiatric Assn. (and better known as the DSM), the manual is meant to cover every mental health disorder that affects children and adults.
Not only do mental health professionals use it routinely when treating patients, but the DSM is also a bible of sorts for insurance companies deciding what disorders to cover, as well as for clinicians, courts, prisons, pharmaceutical companies and agencies that regulate drugs. Because large numbers of countries, including the United States, treat the DSM as gospel, it’s no exaggeration to say that minor changes and additions have powerful ripple effects on mental health diagnoses around the world.
Full article in LA Times:
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-lane16-2008nov16,0,1940730.story
