Introduction to the history of madness and mental health

In 2013, the American Psychiatric Association (APA) released the fifth edition of its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, otherwise known as the DSM-5. In preparation for the new manual, the APA Task Force and Work Group responsible for drafting it reviewed scholarly literature, conducted field trial tests, and solicited the opinions of numerous specialists in the field of mental health. ¹ Both before and after the volume’s publication, the task force drew the ire of some observers from both within and outside the psychiatric community. Among other things, critics complained that key decisions were made surreptitiously “behind closed doors,” that the pharmaceutical industry had too great an influence on the process and final product, that lobbying interests were driving diagnostic changes, and that new criteria were redefining things like mundane grief as forms of mental illness. All in all, many contended, the APA was responsible for irresponsibly medicalizing normality. ²