THE DIAGNOSTIC STATISICAL MANUAL AND ALL IT'S VERSIONS THERE OF
Anyone who has worked in the field of psychology and all of it's permutations has heard of,seen,perused on the toilet or otherwise referred to this bible of "managed care approved disorders" to diagnose patients,real or imagined.
They are on, I believe, version IV-R.
When I sought out therapy after my mom died,my diagnoses was (primary) Adjustment disorder,non-specified (my mom died and I was fucked up about it) and rule out PTSD (I worked in an environment full of violence and unpredictability...go figure).
...and the list goes on...Conduct disorder,affect disorder,schizotypal disorders: specified,unspecified,paranoid,delusional,paranoid/delusional, major depression, bipolar disorder, borderline personality disorder (for girls AND boys),MPD...it gets oh so confusing!
From my experience,it was all based on what the insurance companies would pay for,and peoples problems were manipulated in the record to reflect the diagnoses d'jour.
If I was writing a DSM manual,it would be simple,cut and dry...broken down into four sections:
1. Mildly fucked up (out patient therapy...)
2. Moderately fucked up (out patient therapy and some meds)
3. Majorly fucked up (in patient,out patient,lots of meds)
4. Fucked beyond belief (in patient,out patient yo-yo,massive meds,chains and a basement, commonly referred to as transitional care or halfway house,prison and/or death)
Don't get me wrong...I have the utmost empathy for the "less fortunate" disturbed people in our society,it's just that they have been snuggled into a cottage industry designed to make money for the people charged with their care,manipulated and enabled to remain sick. Therapy sold to them like fresh water to flood victims...meds shoved down their throats like they are the Freudian equivalent to crackheads.
Mental illness is really simple: you ain't right, you have to get right,and were gonna help you get right...this simple approach used to work,until some assholes figured out they could make money off other people's sorrows, and did.
And when it got so ridiculous people said enough,they came up with managed care,which is the same thing they were doing before,only with more regulation put in place to fool us, and it worked.