No Client Left Behind: Agoraphobia's Secret Story

• Published in: PsycCritiques Vol. 53; no. 25; p. No Pagination Specified
• Main Author: Knight, Tracy A.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: American Psychological Association 18.06.2008
• Subjects: Agoraphobia; Human; Psychodiagnosis; Psychodiagnostic Typologies; Social Change; Social Influences; Sociocultural Factors
• ISSN: 1554-0138; 1554-0138
• DOI: 10.1037/a0010895

Reviews the book, Narrating social order: Agoraphobia and the politics of classification by Shelley Z. Reuter (see record 2007-05588-000). Because the cultural and social dimensions of psychiatric diagnosis are often ignored when researched or applied, a book such as Reuter's is a vital contribution to the field, a breath of fresh air into an atmosphere that has become progressively impenetrable. Through her deconstruction of a single diagnosis--agoraphobia--Reuter accomplishes so much more than providing a new examination of a human problem; she lays bare the morality play (and the power play) underlying the psychiatric diagnostic system and in the process illuminates unlit corners that demand our scrutiny. In her introduction, Reuter states her intent quite clearly when she describes her pursuit as a "Foucaultian genealogical approach to demonstrating the overlap between the psychiatric narrative of agoraphobia and the sociocultural narratives of marginalization" (p. 7). Indeed, readers who are familiar with Foucault's work will find much to admire in Reuter's analysis that, among other factors, considers the role of power in diagnosis, as well as the role of shifting culture in the genesis of a specific disorder. Most important, she details how the society's increasing emphasis on producing and consuming directly informs what is considered "normal." By vigilantly tracing the invention, evolution, and application of the diagnosis of agoraphobia, Reuter has provided her readers with a rare gift, a book that increases in significance as its contents are considered and that has important implications for psychology, psychiatry, and our perceptions of human beings and the problems they encounter in their lives. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)