The Selling of DSM

Book excerpt: When it was first published in 1980, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Third Edition--univer­sally 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 pro­cess that led to the peer acceptance of DSM-III. Their original and controversial reconstruction of that moment concen­trates 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.