With three years still left until publication, the fights over the new version of the psychiatric diagnostic manual, the DSM‑V, are hotting up and The New York Times has a 
concise article that covers most of the main point of contention.
- “What you have in the end, Mr. Shorter said, “is this process of sorting the deck of symptoms into syndromes, and the outcome all depends on how the cards fall.
- Psychiatrists involved in preparing the new manual contend that it is too early to say for sure which cards will be added and which dropped.
Although I doubt the DSM committee are using that exact metaphor, it certainly illustrates the point that the process requires a certain degree of value-judgement.
It’s interesting, however, that the public debate is currently focused on whether certain diagnoses should be included or not, rather than whether diagnosis itself is useful for psychiatry.
We’ve had psychometrics for a good 100 years that allow us to measure dimensions of human experience and performance with a much greater degree of accuracy than [Read more…] about Shall we question the brand new book of human troubles
