DSM-IV-TR

Reading about the release of the new Diagnostic and Statistical Manual on Mental Disorders, or DSM-IV-TR, why do I get the feeling the book is more a political one than a psychiatric one? Why do I get the feeling the book is defining many normal human thoughts, emotions and actions as abnormal?

I have no doubt there is value in the book for psychiatrists, psychologists and other therapists who need a reference for standards for diagnosis and treatment of patients, but I have equally no doubt the book is more about politics, drug companies and money.

I feel that because the more mental disorders they include and the more broadly they define disorders, no matter the semantics of the name in the manual it's still a manual of mental disorders, the more they get work for all therapists, the more drugs are prescribed, and the more money everyone makes.

Making normal behavoir abnormal ensure their own jobs and helps keep the drug companies in business selling anti-disorder drugs and developing new ones. And guess who pays the bills? The health insurance companies, Medicare/Medicaid, and the patient.

They plan to keep the book updated as things change with disorders. Any bets no disorder is removed, no disorder is defined more restictively and no disorder has no pharmaceutical treatment. And you can kiss cures out the window because once you're diagnosed with a mental disorder, you never get out of it.

As the Eagles sang in Hotel California:

The last thing I remember
I was running for the door.
I had to find a passage
back to the place I was before.
"Relax.", said the nightman,
"We are programmed to receive.
You can check out any time you like,
but you can never leave."

Kinda' said it all back then.