Monday, 9 October 2006 10:06 pm
On an unrelated note...
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deckardcaninehttp://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15196598/wid/11915773?GT1=8618
Why am I not surprised. I know the term has been used questionably many times -- for instance, as a misnomer for what we now call dissociative identity disorder. It also comes up in humor more often than many other disorders, rendering it unsavory as a label.
On the other hand, my Abnormal Psychology professor (caps are important in this case!) had said that SZ was one of the best cases against the extreme Thomas Szasz position that "mental disorders" were merely labels constructed to oppress people. He said it stood out among disorders for its compelling evidence of a genetic basis.
Thoughts?
Why am I not surprised. I know the term has been used questionably many times -- for instance, as a misnomer for what we now call dissociative identity disorder. It also comes up in humor more often than many other disorders, rendering it unsavory as a label.
On the other hand, my Abnormal Psychology professor (caps are important in this case!) had said that SZ was one of the best cases against the extreme Thomas Szasz position that "mental disorders" were merely labels constructed to oppress people. He said it stood out among disorders for its compelling evidence of a genetic basis.
Thoughts?
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no subject
I understand the complaint that it aggregates different etiologies under the same diagnosis (even after splitting into the four canonical subvarieties), but that is generally true of any phenomenological diagnosis system (such as DSM-III).
To diagnose by implementation (the DSM-IV philosophy), you pretty much have to work with neurology (even if it does have a psychodynamic origin). Of course, then there is the problem of what to do with "alternate normals"/"apparently unimpairing variations" and "vernacularly, that's a moral/ethical problem".