March/April 2014

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Editor's Note

Rich Simon

Even though the grumbling about DSM-5 does seem to have reached some kind of tipping point, it isn’t clear at all what alternative would be any better. Nevertheless, this issue of the Networker grapples with the question of whether we’re nearing the end of the usefulness of a 150-year-old paradigm for thinking about both mental and physical illness.

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The Cult of DSM

Ending Our Allegiance to the Great Gazoo

Gary Greenberg

Labeling clients with DSM diagnoses is a ritual most of us perform to get reimbursed and pay our mortgages, but few of us actually believe in. Has the time finally come for us to take our dissatisfaction with the DSM seriously and turn it into something more than a bitter complaint? Read More
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The Book We Love to Hate

Why DSM-5 Makes Nobody Happy

Mary Sykes Wylie

From small insignificant beginnings in 1952, when almost nobody read it, DSM has become a kind of sacred literary monster. Today, it’s the most detested and certainly the most debated mental health classification scheme ever devised. Read More
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The Debate Over DSM-5: A Step Backward

A Step Backward: An Interview with Allen Frances

Rich Simon

As the man responsible for the previous edition, the foremost critic of DSM-5 is perhaps the last person you’d expect to trash this latest, biggest version. Read More
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The Debate Over DSM-5: A Step in the Right Direction

A Step in the Right Direction: An Interview with Darrel Regier

Rich Simon

The vice chair of the DSM-5 Task Force is bemused that the release of what was intended to be a more accurate and rigorously researched manual has raised such an uproar. Read More
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Shedding Light on DSM-5

The View from the Trenches

Martha Teater

While the polemical debates over the new DSM have received widespread coverage, the reactions of ordinary clinicians have yet to receive much scrutiny. Read More
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Soft Shock Therapy

The Art of Speaking the Unspeakable

Cloe Madanes

Using humor to help clients reconstruct their problems, even to the point of making parodies of their own dilemmas, can help some them get distance from their woes, learn to take themselves less seriously, and perhaps even gain a bit of wisdom. Read More

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