PTSD in DSM-III: A Case in the Politics of Diagnosis and Disease

Abstract

The American Psychiatric Association published the third edition of its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM-III) in 1980. Unlike DSM-II, it included the listing “post-traumatic stress disorder” (PTSD). The PTSD diagnosis is the product of a concerted effort to reintroduce war neurosis into the official psychiatric nomenclature. This paper tells the sociological story of who put PTSD in DSM-III and how they did it.