There has been no more withering and hilarious critique of the entire DSM enterprise than
The Book of Woe: The DSM and the Unmaking of Psychiatry. Its author, Connecticut psychotherapist Gary Greenberg, has been described as “equal parts Woody Allen, Kierkegaard, and Columbo.” Greenberg has dedicated himself to exposing the political in-fighting, hypocrisy, and lack of scientific validity at the heart of the diagnostic system, what his
recent article in the Networker described as “The Cult of DSM.” As he put it, “Finding someone who thinks the DSM is of clinical value is like walking around Athens with a lamp lit in the daylight looking for an honest man.”
There’s something both startling and refreshingly direct about hearing Greenberg’s no-holds-barred denunciation of the very idea of psychiatric diagnosis. “To diagnose people is to hide uncomfortable truths about what we do, why we do it, and how we get paid for it,” he claims. “Abandoning diagnosis, and with it the bacteriological model, would no doubt induce confusion and maybe even chaos among us therapists, even as it reduced our income and status. But that’s often the price of honesty. And I would point out that if there is one profession suited to tolerating the difficulties of the truth, it’s ours.”
This video clip gives you the flavor of one of Gary’s scathing, wildly entertaining riffs on DSM-5. But ultimately, what’s so compelling about Gary is his willingness to challenge us to take responsibility for going beyond the limits of DSM and envision what the alternative to it might be. As he states in his
Networker article, “I think it would have to have an explicit social dimension, one that included justice and fairness and other moral considerations normally held to be outside the bailiwick of medicine… And it would have to include a definition of wellness and even flourishing, and some agreement about which conditions that fall short of those qualities are deserving of our collective resources.”
You can learn more about Gary’s call to action in the Networker Webcast series, The Uproar Over DSM-5.
The Uproar Over DSM-5
How to Use the New Standards with Confidence
Click here for full course details
Topic:
Business of Therapy
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Diagnostic and Statistical Manual
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Gary Greenberg
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