| Description |
1 online resource (348 pages) : illustrations |
|
text file PDF |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| Contents |
Deep ambiguity of mental illness -- Controversies surrounding formal diagnostic criteria for psychiatric disorders -- Framework of the diagnostic system -- Structure of the chapters -- A brief history of DSM-III -- Psychiatry, science, and medicine -- DSM and health insurance -- Guiding principles of DSM-III -- Feighner criteria -- DSM-III criteria -- Success of DSM-III -- Psychiatric disorders around the globe -- Interpreting the prevalence of psychiatric disorders -- Conservative approach -- Dimensional approach -- Network approach -- Considering normal and abnormal responses to the environment -- More lumping and less splitting -- Considering the career of a diagnosis -- Theory neutrality in practice -- Mental disorders as essences -- Production of unreliability -- Diagnostic workarounds -- Institutional pressures on diagnosis -- Accuracy of diagnosis in primary-care settings -- Using the DSM -- Public beliefs about mental illness -- How is information about diagnosis used in the clinical encounter? -- Does the DSM create false epidemics? -- Stigma of psychiatric disorders -- Do labels matter for public beliefs? -- Resisting and avoiding labels -- Disease specificity and the public -- Neglect of naturally occurring symptom profiles -- Difficulties of revising the DSM for purposes of research -- DSM and the lexicon of disorders -- Diagnosing versus treating disorders -- DSM creates new entities and not just new symptoms -- Psychiatric disorders have strong semantic gravity -- Use of psychiatric teams in fiction -- Are there genes for mental illness? -- Interpreting genetic influences -- Are the effects of genes specific? -- Neuroscience of psychiatric disorders -- Is mental illness categorical? -- Are major and minor disorders caused by different things? -- Science and the DSM-5 -- Universe of validators -- Science and judgment -- Competition among scientific frameworks -- Problem of consciousness -- Appeal of the natural sciences -- Inescapable importance of values -- Summary -- Conflict among science, clinicians, and the public -- Moving forward -- Diagnostic system in equilibrium -- Last DSM. |
| Summary |
Mental illness is many things at once: It is a natural phenomenon that is also shaped by society and culture. It is biological but also behavioral and social. Mental illness is a problem of both the brain and the mind, and this ambiguity presents a challenge for those who seek to accurately classify psychiatric disorders. The leading resource we have for doing so is the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, but no edition of the manual has provided a decisive solution, and all have created controversy. In The Diagnostic System, the sociologist Jason Schnittker looks at the multiple actors involved in crafting the DSM and the many interests that the manual hopes to serve. Is the DSM the best tool for defining mental illness? Can we insure against a misleading approach? Schnittker shows that the classification of psychiatric disorders is best understood within the context of a system that involves diverse parties with differing interests. The public wants a better understanding of personal suffering. Mental-health professionals seek reliable and treatable diagnostic categories. Scientists want definitions that correspond as closely as possible to nature. Everyone seeks definitive insight into what they regard as the right target. Yet even the best classification system cannot satisfy all of these interests simultaneously. Progress toward an ideal is difficult, and revisions to diagnostic criteria often serve the interests of one group at the expense of another. |
| Local Note |
eBooks on EBSCOhost EBSCO eBook Subscription Academic Collection - North America |
| Language |
In English. |
| Subject |
Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders.
|
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Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders. |
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Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders. |
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Mental illness -- Diagnosis.
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Mental illness -- Diagnosis. |
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Psychodiagnostics.
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Psychodiagnostics. |
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United States. |
| Genre/Form |
Electronic books.
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| Other Form: |
Print version: Schnittker, Jason. Diagnostic system. New York : Columbia University Press, [2017] 9780231178068 (DLC) 2016056249 (OCoLC)965804813 |
| ISBN |
9780231544597 (electronic book) |
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0231544596 (electronic book) |
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9780231178068 (hardcover ; alkaline paper) |
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0231178069 (hardcover ; alkaline paper) |
| Standard No. |
10.7312/schn17806 |
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