Abstract
The third edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, otherwise known as the DSM-III, was published in 1980. As its authors noted, this new classification system for American psychiatry was met with a variety of reactions including “interest, alarm, despair, excitement and joy.” The publication of the DSM-III represented the culmination of the work on classification by members of the neo-Kraepelinian movement. Their concern about diagnostic reliability, their advocacy of psychiatry as a viable branch of scientific medicine, and their belief that description is an important step in the process of understanding psychopathology are all reflected in the DSM-III. Because of the importance of the DSM-III, this chapter is devoted to a discussion and criticism of this new system.
DSM-III: Diagnostic Delight or Nosological Nightmare?
Peter Nathan, 1979, p. 477
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References
Foulds, G. A., & Bedford, A. Hierarchy of classes of personal illness. Psychological Medicine, 1975, 5, 181 – 192.
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© 1984 Plenum Press, New York
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Blashfield, R.K. (1984). DSM-III. In: The Classification of Psychopathology. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-2665-6_5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-2665-6_5
Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA
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