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Is America a Nation of Java Junkies?

It is fair to say that there never was such a fuss and hullabaloo surrounding a psychiatric manual as there has been about the DSM-5, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th Edition, put out by the (psychiatry… Continue Reading

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They Said WHAT?: Some Great Quotes From the DSM-5 Hubbub

One year after its initial deadline, the 5th Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, the DSM-5, is due out in May, 2013. Published by the American Psychiatric Association, it is, in the APA’s words the: standard classification of mental… Continue Reading

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Why DO The Texts Keep Getting Bigger?: DSM’s Tendency to Pathologize the Normal

Each subsequent publication of the DSM has gotten progressively larger. We can only imagine what sort of tote bag we’ll need for the upcoming DSM-5. Now, this doesn’t bother me for its own sake, really. I don’t go on family… Continue Reading

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Perish the Paranoid: Personality Disorders Pulverized in New Mental Health Manual

Some parts of life can be so simple. Take high school math. You had two intersecting lines, and, to be fancy, you called them ‘axes.’ To sound real mathematically sophisticated, you didn’t just call them ‘this axis’ and ‘that axis.’… Continue Reading

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Pathologizing Grief–Just For Starters: The DSM-5 and My Tripartite Expression of Displeasure, My Parting Words

Your clergy, your doctor–and your portfolio manager. Sounds like it has the makings for a cleaned-up version of an ethnic joke, I know, but it isn’t that. Instead, ask yourself: Who are the people in whom you want to have complete… Continue Reading

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Pathologizing Grief–Just For Starters: The DSM-5 and My Tripartite Expression of Displeasure, Part II

You cry into your pillow silently at night, reaching across to that empty expanse of the bed where, for 30 years, you’d always felt your partner’s hand reaching, in turn, for yours. Sleep eludes you due to the pain, and… Continue Reading

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Pathologizing Grief–Just For Starters: The DSM-5 and My Tripartite Expression of Displeasure, Getting Started

It’s a little-known fact, even to the seminar graduates, that,  before the powers that be let a mother actually give birth to her child, she and her partner have to attend a weekend seminar (and there are no exceptions here) in some hazy, nebulous… Continue Reading