Do half of all Americans suffer from mental disorders at some point in their lives? Or do surveys misdiagnose the distress that is a normal part of every life?
References
1.
HorwitzAllan V.. Creating Mental Illness (University of Chicago Press, 2002). This book describes how and why the general pathologies of psychoanalysis changed into the specific mental disorders of the DSM-III in 1980.
2.
RobinsLeeRegierDarrell. Psychiatric Disorders in America: The Epidemiological Catchment Area Study (The Free Press, 1991). The best compilation of conventional views regarding psychiatric epidemiology.
3.
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.Mental Health: A Report of the Surgeon General (National Institute of Mental Health, 1999). A government report shows how epidemiological findings are used for the purposes of public policy.
4.
WakefieldJerome C.. “The Measurement of Mental Disorder.” In A Handbook for the Study of Mental Health: Social Contexts, Theories, and Systems, ed. HorwitzAllan V.ScheidTeresa L. (Cambridge University Press, 1999). This chapter indicates how symptom-based diagnostic categories inflate estimates of the amount of mental disorder in epidemiological studies.
