ESCP Europe

This book provides a critical evaluation of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) of Mental Disorders. Starting from a historical overview of the evolution in psychiatric diagnosis, The author asserts that the diagnostic reliability of the DSM is overrated : important factors that undermine its diagnostic reliability have never been sufficiently addressed and the common idea that the handbook is reliable rests on a biased interpretation of statistical data. The book argues that the DSM builds on a narrow biomedical approach to mental disorders that neglects context, and proposes its replacement with a contextualizing model of mental health symptoms. Drawing from phenomenological psychiatry and Lacanian psychoanalysis, the author concludes that a reflexive account of psychopathology is urgently needed.