List the current manual that is used by mental health professionals in the U.S. to classify mental disorders, explain the advantages of using this approach and how the new edition of this manual will be different from the present one, and discuss the dangers in psychiatric labeling, including the findings of Rosenhan's study

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Answers will include that psychological problems are classified by using the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). The current edition is the DSM-IV-TR (the fourth edition, text revision) with a new edition, the DSM-5, due to be published in 2013 . Regardless of the edition, the DSM influences most activities in mental health settings from diagnosis to therapy to insurance company billing. The DSM is based on empirical data and clinical observations and allows clinicians to better diagnose and treat mental disorders. The definitions of mental disorders have changed over time. For example, when the DSM was first published in 1952, neurosis was included. The term was dropped in later editions because it was too imprecise. Like older editions, the DSM-5 will reflect updated research and changing social attitudes. For example, gender identity disorder may continue to be included in the DSM-5 as gender dysphoria. Opponents of this term believe that many people whose physical sex does not match their sexual identity are well adjusted and should not be labeled as "disordered.". New mental disorders that will most likely be added to the DSM-5 include posttraumatic embitterment disorder, which occurs when a person is left so bitter after a perceived injustice that he or she cannot let it go. Other possibilities include apathy syndrome, Internet addiction disorder, and parental alienation syndrome. Such new additions have led some psychologists to worry that more and more normal human behavior is being redefined as problematic. Yet each of the problems listed earlier can seriously disrupt a person's life and perhaps should be part of the next DSM. However, there are also dangers in psychiatric labeling. One of the most interesting demonstrations was a study conducted by psychologist David Rosenhan. He and several colleagues had themselves committed to mental hospitals with a diagnosis of "schizophrenia.". After being admitted, each of these "pseudopatients" dropped all pretense of mental illness. Yet, even though they acted completely normal, none of the researchers was ever recognized by hospital staff as a phony patient. Real patients did notice and suspected that the researchers were checking up on the hospital or were journalists. Because the researchers were in a mental ward, and because they had been labeled schizophrenic, anything the pseudopatients did was seen as a symptom of psychopathology. As Rosenhan's study shows, it is far better to label problems than to label people. Psychiatric labeling frequently leads to prejudice and discrimination with the mentally ill in our culture being stigmatized (rejected and disgraced). People who have been labeled mentally ill (at any time in their lives) are denied housing and jobs and are often falsely accused of crimes. Thus, people can be harmed as much by social stigma as their mental illness.