Politics and Psychiatric Classification

Reviews the book, The Selling of DSM: The Rhetoric of Science in Psychiatry by Stuart A. Kirk and Herb Kutchins (1992). This book discusses how the various editions of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) have evolved since the 1950s. In particular, the authors focus on th...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inContemporary psychology Vol. 39; no. 3; pp. 310 - 311
Main Authors Blashfield, Roger K., Cheong, Josepha A.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published 01.03.1994
Subjects
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual
Human
Psychiatry
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Summary:Reviews the book, The Selling of DSM: The Rhetoric of Science in Psychiatry by Stuart A. Kirk and Herb Kutchins (1992). This book discusses how the various editions of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) have evolved since the 1950s. In particular, the authors focus on the noncognitive forces that shaped the creation of the DSM-III (DSM, 3rd ed., American Psychiatric Association, 1980). This book presents itself as a dispassionate example of a Kuhnian scientific revolution, whereas the book could be more accurately viewed as a critical, negative portrayal of the politics of modern psychiatry. Readers should be aware that the positions taken by the authors might be seen differently by other commentators on the DSMs. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)
ISSN:0010-7549
DOI:10.1037/034018