The increasing usefulness of DSM with every revision is clearly illustrated here in this ‘ere photo.

DSM-III  clearly represented a great leap forward over previous versions…

– it can hold open a much bigger, heavier door on a bright, breezy spring day.

This important utility is clearly retained and expanded upon by subsequent editions and is perhaps one of the reasons it sold so many copies and made so much money for it’s producers the APA.

Seems that the APA’s coffers need a cash injection – so what better way than to copy Apple and rehash their most successful cash cow:  DSM 5,  currently in the making,  promises to uphold and expand that tradition.

a very expensive doorstop

Poor APA , it has clearly lost it’s way:  it’s difficult to see how any of this obsession with categorising human experience in infinitesimal detail – as a way of pretending to itself that it understands -has anything at all to do with soul-healing:  the original meaning of the word “psychiatry”.

Soon, 1 million copies of DSM-IV will be obsolete.

If they were anything like as clever as they think they are then the APA would rebrand DSM, call it something cool like  iDSM, pretend to leave an early prototype in a bar, fake-leak teaser stories  to friendly press hacks, hype the hype so that would-be diagnosticians the world over will be running to buy the latest version.

oops they almost are….

Can’t wait to see news reports of  diagnostic early adopters cueing  up under tarps outside psychiatric bookstores from midnight to be first in their city to get their hands on  their very own copy.

So, let’s hear from you- how many uses can you think of for DSM – old or new ?

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