DSM response paper

Essay by proma718 April 2014

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Farzana Taher

Professor Pipitone - Psych 100

December, 9, 2013

Psychological Disorders/ DSM Response Paper

There are times when people are troubled with thoughts, behaviors or emotions that will prevent them from normal behavior. These are known as psychological disorders. These disorders come in many forms but all will have large effects on a person's life. Many people suffer with different kinds of disorders like anxiety disorder, panic disorder, phobias, posttraumatic stress disorder, obsessive- compulsive disorder, moodiness, schizophrenia, personality, and many other disorders. Some disorders are not so serious; while some are so severe it affects the person's life and the environment around them. A disorder is simply an abnormal way of acting toward something. Psychologists follow a guide called DSM which is short for The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual. This detailed guide helps psychologist examine the overall stability of the patient rather than only focusing on the diagnosis.

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual was started in the United States in the 1970 as a categorized system of psychiatric disorders and not a mental illness. This book is used for classification of diagnoses only. It is a list of symptoms to identify potential diagnoses.

There is podcast on the website called thisamericanlife.org, called 81 words. The podcast 81 words is the story about how the American Psychiatric Association decided in 1973 that homosexuality was no longer a mental illness. In the podcast it says how something small that changes and influences something very large, this is the liberation of a social group. Homosexuals were not just fighting for their rights, but for their sanity.

The authority figures that make the DSM impact the people by making an assumption about an illness or way of life. They give their own definition and makes people believe what they write in...