Redefining Crazy: Researchers Revise the 'DSM' - TIME

It may not be at the top of your list, but the DSM, as it's usually called, is one of the most important books in the world. It attempts to categorize, describe and give a code number to literally every problem that can occur in your mind, from schizophrenia to borderline personality disorder to something called mathematics disorder, which is essentially being so bad at math that it amounts to a mental problem.

The DSM is important not only because it is wildly ambitious but also because mental-health professionals around the world have adopted its classification system. In the U.S., it is virtually impossible to get reimbursed by an insurance company for treatment unless a mental-health professional identifies your condition by a DSM code number. (The number for mathematics disorder, if you were wondering, is 315.1. The code for Tourette's syndrome is 307.23; the code for sexual sadism is 302.84. As I said, the DSM tries to cover everything.)

The American Psychiatric Association (APA), which owns the DSM, is in the process of rewriting the book, which was first published in 1952. The DSM-V, as the fifth edition will be called, is set to be published in 2012. But the process of researching it began way back in 1999 — five years after the publication of the last major revision, the DSM-IV — meaning the new book's production will take 13 years overall.

many people have a stake in what the world defines as crazy and what it calls normal. Famously, homosexuality was listed as a DSM condition until a 1974 vote among APA members removed it. Other groups of mental-health professionals and patients want certain disorders to be added (and covered by insurance): sexual compulsivity, for instance, is not in the DSM, even though "sexual aversion disorder" (302.79) — the persistent and distressing avoidance of genital contact not explained by another disorder like depression — is included. (Read an interview with an author who has bipolar disorder.)

Debates about what should and shouldn't be in the DSM are fascinating and often bitter, and as I have pointed out before, the book makes at least one fundamental error in the way it conceives of mental problems: it ignores causes almost entirely.

via Redefining Crazy: Researchers Revise the 'DSM' - TIME.