DSM-III deliberately reclassified people into disorders they have

Evidence

The sick individual had a syndrome, as Spitzer wrote: “A common misconception is that a classification of mental disorders classifies people, when actually what are being classified are disorders that people have. For this reason, the text of dsm-iii avoids the use of such expressions as ‘a schizophrenic’ or ‘an alcoholic’ and instead uses the more accurate, but admittedly more cumbersome, ‘an individual with Schizophrenia’ or ‘an individual with alcohol dependence.’” Neither the type of psychological structure nor the symptom’s meaning for the individual was pertinent. — Alain Ehrenberg, The Weariness of the Self, 702

Categorization

• CANDY: The shift from ‘a schizophrenic’ to ‘an individual with Schizophrenia’ is a quotable, consequential linguistic reform.
• XREF: connects to: The DSM-III was designed as an expert system to bypass clinician judgment — Alain Ehrenberg, The Weariness of the Self: Diagnosing…, 701; Psychiatric labels were wrongly applied where situational responses explained the scores — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 1183; Dysthymia replaced neurotic depression, opening chemical personality therapy — Alain Ehrenberg, The Weariness of the Self: Diagnosing…, 874

Broader Connections

• Dysthymia replaced neurotic depression, opening chemical personality therapy #expands (0.78) — Alain Ehrenberg, The Weariness of the Self, 874
• Psychiatric labels were wrongly applied where situational responses explained the scores #qualifies (0.75) — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 1183