Drop the language of disorder

Abstract

We may be on the cusp of a major paradigm shift in our thinking about psychiatric disorders. The proposed revision of the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) of Mental Disorders franchise for the classification and diagnosis of human distress, which will lead to the 5th edition (DSM-V), has served as a catalyst for a wide range of criticism (most notably at www.ipetitions.com/petition/dsm5/). This has identified serious inadequacies in the specific proposed revisions, and has also highlighted scientific, philosophical, practical and humanitarian weaknesses in the diagnostic approach to psychological well-being, underpinning the DSM. This debate provides the opportunity to propose a more scientific grounded and clinically useful system.