CRITICISMS OF THE DSMJacqueline Corcoran, Ph.D.Virginia Commonwealth University School of Social Workhttp://www.jacquelinecorcoran.com/

Social constructionnotion of mental illness is accepted as “factual” or “objective” by many of its members, when in fact the belief system is constructed by influential members of that society) and are reflective of the values of the times in which they emerge.psychiatric diagnoses are often based on cultural notions of normality and abnormality, and mental health and illness

Other criticisms Lacks strength focus Promotes an arbitrarily medical model and

overstates the case for biological causation Doesn’t address interactional problems and the

roles played by systems life transitions, relationship difficulties, and

environmental unresponsiveness Adjustment disorders, V-codes

More criticisms Many boundary cases

lack of specificity has been dealt with in part by the addition over time of new subtypes of disorders, and also by introducing the “severity” qualifiers

DSM is a money-making enterprise expanded classification of disorders in the DSM has

furthered the purposes of pharmaceutical companies Co-morbidity is a substantial problem Distinctions between clinical disorders and personality

disorders are problematic reliability of diagnosis is not high