...the ultimate mental health reference...presents diagnostic criteria for such problems as dissociative, mood, somatoform, or sleep disorders, schizophrenia, dementia, and delirium.
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 4.0 / 5.0
DSM IV:
I consider this an excellent reference manual. It is not a book that you can casually read as it is technical, but very informative. My therapist said that some people that read the book apply the illness to their personal feelings. That can be dangerous as only a trained psychiatrist can truly diagnose a person's mental condition.
Some important clarifications:
First of all, don't get discouraged by the negative reviews because some of them (maybe most of them!) are clearly scientologist reviews. Scientologists believe that psychiatrists are behind the rise of Hitler, not to mention other interesting stuff such as, that Xenu, the galatic overlord, was helped by psychiatrists; this is actualy true, so... Anyway, about the DSM-IV , I think it can be an excelent manual IF used properly. Classification is a somewhat inerently arbitrary activity and that should be... more info
For Diagnostic/Clinician Use:
I think people often misunderstand or misinterpret the purpose of this publication.
In my opinion, this isn't a tool for deciding who's crazy, who's hyperactive or anything else. The true purpose of this book is to make sure that a proper diagnosis is made on a person who either willingly or unwillingly requests mental help from a psychiatrist. It's obnoxious to hear about how psychiatry/psychology is a sham, and an abuse of power... If you don't want to read or use the DSM, DON'T! Go with... more info
The uses of this manual...:
The DSM-IV (and DSM-IV-TR) is the primary manual used by clinicians to diagnose mental disorders. The cons are that 1) the manual categorizes mental disorders when it is entirely possible (perhaps even probable) that mental disorders lie on a continuum shared by normal behaviors, 2) political issues can and do influence which and how mental disorders are included in the manual, and 3) that interrater reliability (the degree of agreement among diagnoses when using the manual) is somewhere around 70%... more info
