but if they're medicalising the extremes of personality bell-curves, who's to say they can't just keep pushing the boundaries in and in and in?
Well, from what I understand the boundaries lie along the line where behaviour begins to interfere with everyday functioning. I think we all meet many, if not most, of those criteria at least some of the time, because they are all perfectly natural impulses and drives and each criterion can be interpreted to fit many different situations, but in order to actually have a mental disorder, each individual criterion has to be something that is so extreme it interferes with day-to-day life. People often criticize the DSM-IV for being too broad and inclusive and medicalizing all sorts of perfectly normal things, but that's only if one doesn't keep in mind that it's not a checklist of "have you ever?" but rather one of "do you consistently to the point of...?"
Me, for example? I display many signs of OCD, but I would never consider myself OCD and probably would not trust any psychologist who diagnosed me as such because my little need for left-right equality is not screwing up my life in the same way that checking the stove twelve times before leaving the house would. I am, however, agoraphobic because I take the common discomfort with talking on the phone to the point that I cause problems for myself by putting off very necessary interaction and lying to people about it afterwards.
no subject
Well, from what I understand the boundaries lie along the line where behaviour begins to interfere with everyday functioning. I think we all meet many, if not most, of those criteria at least some of the time, because they are all perfectly natural impulses and drives and each criterion can be interpreted to fit many different situations, but in order to actually have a mental disorder, each individual criterion has to be something that is so extreme it interferes with day-to-day life. People often criticize the DSM-IV for being too broad and inclusive and medicalizing all sorts of perfectly normal things, but that's only if one doesn't keep in mind that it's not a checklist of "have you ever?" but rather one of "do you consistently to the point of...?"
Me, for example? I display many signs of OCD, but I would never consider myself OCD and probably would not trust any psychologist who diagnosed me as such because my little need for left-right equality is not screwing up my life in the same way that checking the stove twelve times before leaving the house would. I am, however, agoraphobic because I take the common discomfort with talking on the phone to the point that I cause problems for myself by putting off very necessary interaction and lying to people about it afterwards.