That way, madness lies
A new manual for diagnosing diseases of the psyche is about to be unveiled
Feb 4th 2010 | From The Economist print edition
http://www.economist.com/sciencetechnology/displaystory.cfm?story_id=15450623 (http://www.economist.com/sciencetechnology/displaystory.cfm?story_id=15450623)
ON FEBRUARY 10th the world of psychiatry will be asked, metaphorically, to lie on the couch and answer questions about the state it thinks it is in. For that is the day the American Psychiatric Association (APA) plans to release a draft of the fifth version of its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-V). Mental illness carrying the stigma that it does, and the brain being as little-understood as it is, revising the DSM is always a controversial undertaking. This time, however, some of the questions asked of the process are likely to be particularly probing.