Psychiatrist
Glen Simblett reflects on what DSM diagnosis might mean in the consulting room and offers the unusual metaphor of
dance to think about how we might best help people.
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| Doctor and DSM Photo: Dino ahmad ali |
Bring up the topic of DSM 5 and you are
immediately engulfed in controversy. It is an intensely polarising topic with
people either challenging the relentless medicalisation and drug treatment that
it seems to represent, or conversely pointing to the many examples when people
have found DSM diagnosis and drug treatment helpful.
DSM does tend to pull people into
particular positions in relationship to it, and in the process, often produces
conversations that collapse us all into argument and challenge of the
“opposing” viewpoint. Rather than engage in debate about whether DSM is good or
bad for people, as a therapist I am a lot more interested in exploring different
questions. Here’s a question that has meant more to me:
‘What
types of relationships and conditions are needed for DSM knowledge and
practices to add to personal agency and assist people in reclaiming their lives
from problems?’
To answer this, I have to understand some
of the dangers that lurk within DSM knowledge and practices. Then, I think I
need to develop some different understandings and ways of working in order to
counter those dangers. I have to understand how I can dance with DSM in different
ways and different styles as a person, a therapist and psychiatrist.
