The diagnostic and statistical manual's new white coat and circularity of plausible dysfunctions: response to Wakefield, Part 1

Abstract

Wakefield has claimed: (1) logical empiricist models of scientific progress support the view that expansions of the modern DSMs are consistent with such standards of progress; (2) diagnostic label proliferation of the modern DSMs is the same phenomenon as change in physical disease labels of the ICDs; (3) the concepts of disorder and dysfunction should not be separated. I show: (1) Wakefield has misrepresented traditional philosophy of science models of progress to serve his rhetorical aims; (2) Wakefield's claim that DSM label proliferation and ICD change are the same is empirically false; (3) failure to separate the concept of disorder from the concept of dysfunction leads to erroneous reasoning and label proliferation observed in the modern DSMs.