Gary Greenberg: The Book of Woe

Gary Greenberg’s timing could not have been better. Published at around the same time as the American Psychiatric Association’s (APA’s) fifth edition of their Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM), Greenberg might have expected his The Book of Woe to join the conversation regarding the new DSM’s merits and failures, but he couldn’t have foreseen the level of turmoil surrounding DSM-5 that would await/benefit his book. Whether it was the dogfight over removing the diagnosis of Asperger’s Syndrome, classifying bereavement as mental illness; or whether it was big-name clinicians attacking, undermining, and accusing one another of lazy work habits or faulty research practices, the DSM-5 uproar made battles over earlier editions seem like friendly disagreements by comparison. By the time of both books’ release, Greenberg’s chronicle needed no advance explanation. …