British Psychological Society critique of the new DSM

From Brongersma
Jump to navigation Jump to search

The British Psychological Society submitted a collective response to the DSM-5 committee. The begin with general statements and then address specific diagnoses. I heard about the response from Ken Pope, who has a copy of the 26-page critique on his site. Here are some of the highlights: 'The Society is concerned that clients and the general public are negatively affected by the continued and continuous medicalisation of their natural and normal responses to their experiences; responses which undoubtedly have distressing consequences which demand helping responses, but which do not reflect illnesses so much as normal individual variation. The putative diagnoses presented in DSM-V are clearly based largely on social norms, with 'symptoms' that all rely on subjective judgements, with little confirmatory physical 'signs' or evidence of biological causation. The criteria are not value-free, but rather reflect current normative social expectations.

Many researchers have pointed out that psychiatric diagnoses are plagued by problems of reliability, validity, prognostic value, and co-morbidity. While some people find a name or a diagnostic label helpful, our contention is that this helpfulness results from a knowledge that their problems are recognised (in both senses of the word) understood, validated, explained (and explicable) and have some relief. Clients often, unfortunately, find that diagnosis offers only a spurious promise of such benefits.'

In response to the sexual dysfunctions diagnosis in particular here's what they wrote: 'Of particular concern are the subjective and socially normative aspects of sexual behaviour. It is a matter of record that homosexuality used to be considered a symptom of illness. The Society would not be able to support considering sexual differences as symptoms of illness.'

source: Article 'British Psychological Society Critique of the New DSM' by Cory Silverberg; sexuality.about.com/b/2011/06/27/british-psychological-society-critique-of-the-new-dsm.htm; About.com; 27 June 2011