Highlighting the DSM-V's omission of client context

Abstract

The DSM-V is a product of a medical culture that holds individual symptoms as important within the search for biological indicators and psychopathological genetic etiologies (Van Praag, 1990, p. 21). Such an approach undermines the importance of context for understanding problems of living. This paper will look at three components in relation to DSM-V's biological model to show how they exacerbate the promotion of medication treatment using the examples of OCD, social phobias, anorexia, and the therapy experience of U.S. military troops. First, it will look at the DSM-V's categorical approach to diagnosis in juxtaposition to a dimensional/holistic approach, framing the former as an exacerbator of medical solutions to problems of living. Second, it will show that the abstraction required for the categorization inherent in the DSM-V does not rely on etiology, rather descriptions which lead to the discrete groupings of disorders for medical matchmaking. Finally, this paper will inform of the repercussions the DSM-V's categorization and abstraction has on the interpretation of culture in relation to problems of living and why its stigmatization of such problems is an interpretation that contributes to the medicalization of treatment rather than a culture of commitment that incorporates holistic support.