DSM, Allan V. Horowitz
DSM, Allan V. Horowitz
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DSM
A History of Psychiatry's Bible

Author: Allan V. Horowitz

Narrator: Rich Miller

Unabridged: 8 hr 18 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 12/31/2021


Synopsis

The first comprehensive history of "psychiatry's bible"—the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.

Over the past seventy years, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, or DSM, has evolved from a virtually unknown and little-used pamphlet to an imposing and comprehensive compendium of mental disorder. Its nearly 300 conditions have become the touchstones for the diagnoses that patients receive, students are taught, researchers study, insurers reimburse, and drug companies promote. Although the manual is portrayed as an authoritative corpus of psychiatric knowledge, it is a product of intense political conflicts, dissension, and factionalism. The manual results from struggles among psychiatric researchers and clinicians, different mental health professions, and a variety of patient, familial, feminist, gay, and veterans' interest groups. The DSM is fundamentally a social document that both reflects and shapes the professional, economic, and cultural forces associated with its use.

In DSM, Allan V. Horwitz examines how the manual, known colloquially as "psychiatry's bible," has been at the center of thinking about mental health in the United States since its original publication in 1952.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Vannessa on February 15, 2022

A History of Psychiatry’s Bible was an eye-opener! According to author Horwitz the DSM is fundamentally a social document that both reflects and shapes the professional economic and cultural forces associated with it. The DSM also determines who receives government benefits, what diagnosis and prescr......more

Goodreads review by David on December 28, 2022

Concise overview of the history of the various DSM editions. I've been working in mental health field since shortly after DSM-III was published, so pretty familiar with III/III-R/IV/5 issues. For the most part it's fairly neutral and descriptive (like DSM-III!!!) -- e.g., makes the point that the fi......more

Goodreads review by Rae on March 16, 2023

Minuteman. Fairly scholarly. DSM thru DSM V, critical of the arbitrary processes and forces in pharmaceutical industry etc that shaped them. Would buy but too expensive. Scanned preface and first chapter.......more

Goodreads review by Sebastian on April 24, 2024

Definitely a history of the DSM from an anti-psychiatry perspective, but absolutely useful and a worthwhile project. There’s definitely a problematic Foucault style to his historical work - changes are explained in terms of interest groups (big pharma, feminists, patients trying to keep access to re......more

Goodreads review by Mike on February 14, 2024

This was a concise review of the history of the DSM, a fascinating history that is of course much more about society's relationship with mental illness than just about the most important diagnostic tool. The author covers lots of material though often not in as much depth as I would have expected. Fo......more