The Value of Medical Diagnosis for Mental Illness

Most people wonder, from time to time, if they are crazy. Much of the time, the answer is 'no.' From time to time, the answer might be 'somewhat' or even 'you bet!.' Making the determination involves more than intuition on the part of the clinician and more than fear on the part of the patient. There are specific criteria attached to most imaginable conditions that allow them to be either ruled in or out. The most current form of this little psychological know-it-all is the version of the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, Version DSM-IV-TR.

This book, used by any reputable mental health practitioner in the United States, is updated every several years and changes as social acceptances of individual differences continues to grow. For example, it was not all that man years ago when Homosexuality was classified as a 'deviant' behavior. Autism now understood to be a Developmental Disability, was once included as a mental illness believed to be caused in children by 'refrigerator' mothers. We have come a long way from the days when what is now understood to be some form of psychotic process or delusion was regarded as Satanic possession.

Diagnosis remains a work in progress, as do we all. It's importance is not about putting a label on someone. Rather, the functional value of good diagnosis is that it guides appropriate treatment. After all, how can a healer be expected to heal something if they don't know what that something is?

The most current reference work available is available to professionals and to the general public itself. It delineates hundreds of possible diagnoses and then, in a very helpful and useful way, lists items which would either confirm or eliminate a working diagnosis from consideration