The Problem of Polydiagnosis
Diagnostic & Statistical Manual (DSM)
Open letter regarding the reform and revision of diagnostic systems
“We … recommend a paradigmatic revision of the empirical and conceptual frameworks used to think about mental health. A classification approach that pursues the neo-Kraepelinian goal (now nearly half a century old) of establishing biomarkers for individual conditions or symptoms…
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This Book Will Change Your Mind About Mental Health
On Psychiatric Diagnostic Categories from the Point of View of Humanistic-Experiential Psychotherapy
Robert Elliott, Professor of Counselling (University of Strathclyde), reflects on psychiatric diagnostic categories in a blog post from his Robert’s EFT Scotland-California Blog: “… I taught in a clinical psychology doctoral course for almost 30 years, and also taught Abnormal Psychology on many occasions,…
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Saving Normal: An Insider’s Revolt Against Out-of-Control Psychiatric Diagnosis, DSM-5, Big Pharma, and the Medicalization of Ordinary Life
The publishers describe this book (2014) as being an “… urgently important critique of the widespread medicalization of normality. Anyone living a full, rich life experiences ups and downs, stresses, disappointments, sorrows, and setbacks. Today, however, millions of people who…
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The Loss of Sadness: How Psychiatry Transformed Normal Sorrow into Depressive Disorder
Mental Illness Weaponry and Shrink Hypocrisy About Abolishing Stigma
Writing in CounterPunch , Bruce E. Levine, says: “I am a mental health professional, a clinical psychologist, which is not quite as bad as being a psychiatrist but still nothing to brag about. Hypocrisy in U.S. mental health professional policy abounds…
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Guidelines on Language in Relation to Functional Psychiatric Diagnosis
The “Beyond Functional Psychiatric Diagnosis Committee” – from the Division of Clinical Psychology (DCP), which is part of the British Psychological Society – have published guidelines giving alternatives to standard medical diagnostic language. For example: Not “mental illness”, but instead…
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Shrink Radio: Reframing Diagnosis
Here’s a four minute section of ShrinkRadio’s broadcast about reframing diagnosis . It features artist and service-user Susan Young in conversation with Sarah Wheeler (Founder of Mental Fight Club) and Dr. Benjamin Robinson about what it means to be diagnosed. ShrinkRadio is a series…
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