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Critique of the DSM for a graduate social work class on Mental, Emotional, and Behavior Disorders
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CRITICISMS OF THE DSMJacqueline Corcoran, Ph.D.Virginia Commonwealth University School of Social Workhttp://www.jacquelinecorcoran.com/
Social constructionnotion of mental illness is accepted as “factual” or “objective” by many of its members, when in fact the belief system is constructed by influential members of that society) and are reflective of the values of the times in which they emerge.psychiatric diagnoses are often based on cultural notions of normality and abnormality, and mental health and illness
Other criticisms Lacks strength focus Promotes an arbitrarily medical model and
overstates the case for biological causation Doesn’t address interactional problems and the
roles played by systems life transitions, relationship difficulties, and
environmental unresponsiveness Adjustment disorders, V-codes
More criticisms Many boundary cases
lack of specificity has been dealt with in part by the addition over time of new subtypes of disorders, and also by introducing the “severity” qualifiers
DSM is a money-making enterprise expanded classification of disorders in the DSM has
furthered the purposes of pharmaceutical companies Co-morbidity is a substantial problem Distinctions between clinical disorders and personality
disorders are problematic reliability of diagnosis is not high