The Loss of Sadness How Psychiatry Transformed Normal Sorrow into Depressive Disorder |
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| Author:
| Horwitz, Allan V.
Wakefield, Jerome C. |
| ISBN: | 978-1-281-16376-9 |
| Publication Date: | Jan 2007 |
| Publisher: | Oxford University Press
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| Book Format: | Ebook |
| List Price: | USD $40.43 |
Book Description:
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The Loss of Sadness argues that the increased prevalence of major depressive disorder is due not to a genuine rise in mental disease, as many claim, but to the way that normal human sadness has been "pathologised" since 1980. In that year, the field of psychiatry published its landmark third edition of The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-III) which has since become a dominant force behind our current understanding of mental illness overall. As concerns at...
More DescriptionThe Loss of Sadness argues that the increased prevalence of major depressive disorder is due not to a genuine rise in mental disease, as many claim, but to the way that normal human sadness has been "pathologised" since 1980. In that year, the field of psychiatry published its landmark third edition of The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-III) which has since become a dominant force behind our current understanding of mental illness overall. As concerns at least major depression, the authors argue that the DSM's definition of the condition is too narrow and that as a result virtually all research on and all clinical approaches to the condition have been based on a flawed understanding about it.