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The diagnostic system : why the classification of psychiatric disorders is necessary, difficult, and never settled / Jason Schnittker.
Author
Schnittker, Jason
[Browse]
Format
Book
Language
English
Published/Created
New York : Columbia University Press, [2017]
Description
viii, 348 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm
Availability
Available Online
JSTOR DDA
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Call Number
Status
Location Service
Notes
Firestone Library - Stacks
RC469 .S36 2017
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Details
Subject(s)
Mental illness
—
Diagnosis
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Psychodiagnostics
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Summary note
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.
Bibliographic references
Includes bibliographical references (pages 307-331) and index.
Contents
The deep ambiguity of mental illness
Controversies surrounding formal diagnostic criteria for psychiatric disorders
The framework of the diagnostic system
The structure of the chapters
A brief history of DSM-III
Psychiatry, science, and medicine
The DSM and health insurance
The guiding principles of DSM-III
The Feighner criteria
The DSM-III criteria
The success of DSM-III
Psychiatric disorders around the globe
Interpreting the prevalence of psychiatric disorders
The conservative approach
The dimensional approach
The 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
The production of unreliability
Diagnostic workarounds
Institutional pressures on diagnosis
The 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?
The stigma of psychiatric disorders
Do labels matter for public beliefs?
Resisting and avoiding labels
Disease specificity and the public
The neglect of naturally occurring symptom profiles
The difficulties of revising the DSM for purposes of research
The DSM and the lexicon of disorders
Diagnosing versus treating disorders
The DSM creates new entities and not just new symptoms
Psychiatric disorders have strong semantic gravity
The use of psychiatric teams in fiction
Are there genes for mental illness?
Interpreting genetic influences
Are the effects of genes specific?
The neuroscience of psychiatric disorders
Is mental illness categorical?
Are major and minor disorders caused by different things?
Science and the DSM-5
The universe of validators
Science and judgment
Competition among scientific frameworks
The problem of consciousness
The appeal of the natural sciences
The inescapable importance of values
Summary
Conflict among science, clinicians, and the public
Moving forward
The diagnostic system in equilibrium
The last DSM.
Show 55 more Contents items
ISBN
9780231178068 ((hardcover ; : alkaline paper))
0231178069 ((hardcover ; : alkaline paper))
LCCN
2016056249
OCLC
965804813
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Princeton University Library aims to describe library materials in a manner that is respectful to the individuals and communities who create, use, and are represented in the collections we manage.
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The diagnostic system : why the classification of psychiatric disorders is necessary, difficult, and never settled / Jason Schnittker.
id
99103989933506421
The diagnostic system : why the classification of psychiatric disorders is necessary, difficult, and always unsettled / Jason Schnittker.
id
SCSB-8413128