The Selling of DSM: The Rhetoric of Science in Psychiatry

By Stuart A. Kirk

Book Overview

When it was first published in 1980, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Third Edition--univer-sally known as DSM-III--embodied a radical new method for identifying psychiatric illness. Kirk and Kutchins challenge the general understanding about the research data and the pro-cess that led to the peer acceptance of DSM-III. Their original and controversial reconstruction of that moment concen-trates on how a small group of researchers interpreted their findings about a specific problem--psychiatric reliability--to promote their beliefs about mental illness and to challenge the then-dominant Freudian paradigm.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0202304329
• ISBN13: 9780202304328
• Release Date: June 1992
• Publisher: Routledge
• Length: 280 Pages
• Weight: 0.91 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.1" x 9.0"