Class plan

Act. 1 A road to optimism: how a boring book became the basis of a new biological psychiatry (mini-lecture)

-->In-class debate: It is the late 1980s, and you are all mental health workers who lived through the DSM-III "revolution." "Resolved: the DSM-III re-established psychiatry as a medical field like all others, and laid the foundation for a new era of evidence-based research into discrete mental disorders"

To prepare, read the sources in the section, "carving nature at its joints." You will be assigned to a group whose task it is to either defend or to challenge the resolution -- you will not know in advance which group you will end up in. Each group will select brave volunteers to take notes, present opening arguments, and offer rebuttals, and everyone will have a chance to participate in a final open discussion.

Break

Act. 2. Growing unease and the NIMH slap down: tabletop discussion on what we learn from the readings, with reporting out

Act 3: Student mini-project: Prolonged grief disorder presentation-- the journey continues

Finale Blackboard brainstorm on the real meaning of the crisis and unfinished business (all hands on deck) -

-->focus on the Benedict Carey short pieces: "When will we solve mental illness" (2018) and "Science plays the long game, but people have mental health issues now" (2021)

Carving nature at its joints; how diagnostics became conceived as the foundation of scientific psychiatry

Spiegel, Alix.The Dictionary of Disorder.New York Magazine December 27, 2004..
Horwitz, Allan V. “The emergence of diagnostic psychiatry.” In Creating mental illness, 56-82. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2002
By, J. T. (1986, Mar 11). DIAGNOSIS BY THE BOOK; controversy over revisions of the manual psychiatrists use: [ALL EDITIONS]. Newsday

DSM III-R, DSM IV, DSM-5...: How we became increasingly uneasy

Livingston, K. (1999, Winter). Making us crazy, by Herb Kutchins and Stuart A. Kirk (book review). The Public Interest, 134, 105
Leeman, E. (1998). Driven crazy by DSM criteria. The Lancet, 351(9105), 842-843. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(05)78983-2
“Review: Saving Normal | Psychology Today. July 16, 2014

The slap down moment

“The NIMH Withdraws Support for DSM-5.” Psychology Today. March 5, 2013.
Michael Mechanic, “Psychiatry’s New Diagnostic Manual: ‘Don’t Buy It. Don’t Use It. Don’t Teach It.’ – Mother Jones. May 14, 2013
Caplan, Arthur. “Viewpoint: Stop Critiquing the DSM 5.” Time, May 21, 2013.

Group mini-project: How much grieving is too much? The new debate over DSM-approved "prolonged grief disorder"

Final reflection

Carey, Benedict, "When will we solve mental illness?" New York Times. Nov 18, 2018
Carey Benedict, Science plays the long game, but people have mental health issues now," New York Times. April 21, 2021