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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Article
Why Dysfunctional Medical Flaws Have Cramped Psychiatrists Since 1980
Author(s)
Bob Johnson
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DOI:10.17265/1548-6648/2021.03.001
Affiliation(s)
Consultant Psychiatrist (retired); PO Box 49, Ventnor, Isle of Wight, PO38 9AA, UK.
ABSTRACT
In 1980, the American Psychiatric Association published the third edition of its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders(DSM-III, 1980). This departed radically from its two previous editions (DSM-I, 1952 & DSM-II, 1968). It proved an unexpected best seller, which might have raised an eyebrow or two.This paper compares the two standard medical texts, the ICD-10 and DSM-IV (1994) to illustrate quite how extensive these changes were, and to demonstrate how far they deviate from ordinary medical practice, which, for the purposes of clarification ishere boiled down to five basic tasks. Having applied these five to abdominal pains, verbatim extracts from the two texts cited, are compared to see how each fares against the other. Further implications for psychiatric practice in general are discussed in the light of the wider “philosophical” differences revealed. Is medical practice even possible, without taking aetiology, reaction and Patient Agency into full and open consideration? Consciousness is the pinnacle of our biosphere—as a recent paper emphasised—time it received the awe it is due.
KEYWORDS
DSM-psychiatry’s nemesis, diagnoses which illuminate, non-organic psychiatric aetiologies, Patient Agency, obvious stress reactions.
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