There’s an interesting article by Christopher Lane, PhD, in his blog site Side Effects, on Psychology Today. It’s called Crazy like Us: How the U.S. Exports Its Models of Illness, and is dated October 9. Christopher Lane is the author of Shyness: How Normal Behavior Became a Sickness. I wrote a post in April of 2010 that referenced this book.
Here’s the opening paragraph from the Psychology Today article.
“The fears of many European psychiatrists may soon be realized. Earlier this week, Psychiatric News reported that the American Psychiatric Association has begun petitioning the various agencies overseeing changes to the ICD, or International Classification of Diseases, to request that they adopt its most-controversial changes in DSM-5.”
Dr. Lane makes the point that if these petitions are approved, it will result in the exporting to Europe and other parts of the world APA “diagnoses” that are still controversial, e.g. binge-eating disorder, disruptive mood dysregulation disorder, premenstrual dysphoric disorder, etc…
Dr. Lane’s critique of the APA’s petition is compelling and well worth reading.