Posted by violette on July 29, 2010, at 8:27:17
In reply to Re: Diagnosis Problems » violette, posted by sigismund on July 26, 2010, at 23:29:44
Thanks for that, Sigismund!
I read the Amazon reviews about the book-it seems very positive to me. I'm sure it has its flaws too and I doubt it would ever go into mainstream use. It is a holistic view of a patient-and it outlines both strengths and weaknesses. The concept of personality patterns is helpful imo and emphasis on defense mechanisms. I also think it's important to emphasize a person's inner state-rather than symptoms.
This sort of makes up for the individuality ignored by the DSM. Most of the people who create the DSM have ties with drug companies (the evidence is online). And people are being steered to quick fixes, medications and the emphasis on behavior-CBT-which only scratches the surface of problems. Catch all diagnosis such as "Bipolar II" just direct people to drugs instead of treating someone as an individual.
I don't think there's some huge conspiracy going on, but there are various influences to the changes in mental health treatment-including the huge cost of health care. This movement from feelings/inner states to only addressing behavior/symptoms is very disturbing to me. But what's interesting is that what's deemed good for the masses-CBT-is not what mental health professionals think is most helpful to them as research shows the majority of therapists themselves choose psychodynamic therapy, practitioners who 'think' like this manual, over CBT. That says alot. :)
I just get down about this sometimes because I think it causes unnecessary suffering. Most 'pop psychology' mental health articles I find online suggest, in addition to drugs, CBT CBT CBT CBT CBT CBT CBT....ba-bomb, bomb, bomb bomb bomb...
"The new manual insists that personality be evaluated first, and symptoms considered as secondary, because symptoms cannot be understood, assessed, or treated in the absence of an understanding of the personality structure of the person who has the symptoms."
poster:violette
thread:955861
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20100720/msgs/956301.html