If science is defined as some kind of systematic study of observed experience applied to hypotheses or theories, and then confirmation or refutation of those hypotheses or theories, followed by new hypotheses or theories that are further tested and refined by new observations – if this is the core of any scientific inquiry, I think that no objective observer can attribute the history of DSM-III, IV, and 5 to anything that approximates this process.

None of the DSM editions had ever been scientific lmao.

“our understanding of the biology of mental disorders has been slow in coming.”

There’s no biology in mental disorders; none of them have objective phenomena and they are arbitrarily given and created.

  • The Picard Maneuver
    6•10 months ago

    Mental illnesses are categorized based on observation of symptoms and trends, which can be measured and treated, even though we can’t write an equation that fully explains how they came about.

    It’s like how you can troubleshoot problems on your computer without knowing how to write an OS or build a motherboard.