Influencing Mental Health Policy and Planning:DSM–5as a Disciplinary Challenge for Psychology

Abstract

Since the appearance of DSM–5 in May 2013 a range of criticisms has emerged about its scientific and humanistic worthiness. An international network of protest is now evident, prompted in the run up to the publication of the document, by a letter of complaint (and offer of conciliation) from Division 32 of the American Psychological Association (the Society of Humanistic Psychologists). This article summarizes the criticisms evoked by DSM–5 and then moves to its main focus: the disciplinary challenge for psychology. The latter contains a number of aspects including the diversity, and thus sometimes incommensurability, of theoretical perspectives and the policy implications of moving from psychiatric diagnosis to psychological formulation. This shift from digital to analogue reasoning is less compatible with traditional legally based rationales of decision making in both the mental health and criminal justice systems than the digital logic. The article concludes with some suggestions of solutions to these challenges premised on critical realism.