RE: DSM-IV
John Touzios (JTouzios@mwumail.midwestern.edu)
Thu, 01 Apr 1999 16:47:37 -0600
Thank you very much. Your post, however, paradoxically makes me want to learn
DSM-IV-talk, so that I might be able to one day give a "firm, cogently
explained refusal." It also reinforces a fear I learned in class today to
fear DSM-IV and the psychologists who use it.
John Touzios
>===== Original Message From Scottie Bowman <bananafish@lists.nyu.edu> =====
> I can really only add my own dismissive feelings about
> the DSM to those already expressed by both John & Sean.
>
> (I wouldn't even allow the latter's small, reasonable plea
> in mitigation. I think it's a wholly artificial strait jacket
> imposed by pseudo-scientists on a phenomenon -
> the human personality - that is far too multilayered,
> paradoxical & shifting to be accessible to that kind of thinking.)
>
> A word of advice to John when he comes to augment
> his medical earnings. I'm employed rather frequently by
> various insurance companies who, in the beginning, tried
> to get me to use the DSM-IV in my reports -
> 'for the sake of uniformity'. I found that one firm,
> cogently explained refusal to do so - coupled with
> a hefty increase in the fee demanded - quickly brought
> them to heel. Instead of a set of empty, formulaic diagnoses,
> they now enjoy a lengthy, witty & highly subjective
> disquisition on their client. They greatly prefer this
> & have begged me on no account to even consider
> withdrawing my services.
>
> Scottie B.
"Man the most complex, intricate and delicately constructed
machine of all creation, is the one with which the osteopath
must become familiar." A.T. Still
"Everyone seems to know how useful it is to be useful.
No one seems to know how useful it is to be useless."
Chuang Tzu