DIAGNOSING PSYCHOPATHOLOGY: DSM-IV MORE HARM THAN GOOD?

DSM-IV-TR The American Psychological Association developed the most widely used classification system for psychological disorders. The book is called the Diagnostic and Statistical Manuel of Mental Disorders. *IV=4 th edition 1994 **TR=Text revised 2000 DSM-5 MAY 2013!!!

DSM-IV Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders  Resource to diagnose patients (only)  Symptoms of everything considered to be psychological disorder  16 clinical syndromes  Weakness: assumption / labeling of mental illness based on symptoms…

Classifying Psychological Disorders

DANGERS OF LABELING Power of labels Preconception can stigmatize Insanity label Stereotypes of the mentally ill Self-fulfilling prophecy Rosenhan’s study…

PROBLEMS WITH LABELING? A young psychologist, David Rosenhan, set up an experiment to see if mental hospitals could really detect someone with mental illness. He felt that terms like “sanity,” “insanity,” “schizophrenia,” “mental illness” and “abnormal” might have fuzzier boundaries and more fluid definitions than those in the medical world were giving them credit for.

ROSENHAN EXPERIMENT Rosenhan also suspected that some strange behaviors seen in mental patients might originate in the abnormal atmosphere mental hospitals, rather than in the patients themselves. To test these theories, Rosenhan and seven collogues conducted the Rosenhan Experiment in the early 1970s. David Rosenhan

ROSENHAN STUDY Dangers of labeling patients with disorders 8 participants who faked symptoms All acted completed normal except for testifying to hearing voices (3 words) All diagnosed with Schizophrenia and discharged as “ Schizophrenia in remission ” Average stay in institutions: 18 days

EXPLAINING ROSENHAN Rosenhan said that the mistaken diagnosis were most likely a result of the lack of time the doctors spent with the patients. Surprisingly, the other hospital patients readily detected the experiment. The pseudo-patients reported that the other patients regularly voiced their suspicions.

SO… AGAIN, DO NOT DIAGNOSE!! At various moments, all of us feel, think or act the way disturbed people do. We, too, get anxious, depressed, withdrawn, suspicious, or deluded, just less intensely and more briefly. We are NOT psychologists or psychiatrists DO NOT attempt to diagnose yourself or people you know!