The myth of Hempel and the DSM-III

Abstract

In 1959, the philosopher Carl Hempel presented a paper on psychiatric taxonomy at a conference of the American Psychopathological Association. In 1980, the American Psychiatric Association published DSM-III, the third edition of their hugely influential classification of mental disorders. The DSM-III sought to adopt an ‘atheoretical’ approach to classification, and introduced explicit diagnostic criteria setting out the number and combinations of symptoms required for diagnosis. Commentators now often claim that Hempel's paper was an important contributor to the DSM-III approach. This paper argues that this claim is mistaken and that the idea that Hempel influenced the DSM-III is a myth. This matters because the idea that Hempel influenced the DSM-III has played a key rhetorical role in discussions about the potential relevance and importance of the philosophy of psychiatry.