Beyond The Dsm

As a mental health clinician, you know that every client is unique, and a client’s symptoms are the result of a complex combination of psychological, environmental, genetic, and neural factors. However, the de facto DSM model poses considerable constraints on how you can treat clients—often resulting in a one-size-fits-all diagnosis. This important volume challenges the assumptions and approach made by the DSM, and provides a vision and plan for an evidence-based, process-based approach to individualized care. With contributions from renowned experts in the field—including Steven C. Hayes, Stefan G. Hofmann, Joseph Ciarrochi, Matthew McKay, Uma Vaidyanathan, Sarah Morris, David Sommers, J. Scott Fraser, and many more—this groundbreaking book will show you a new way to recognize the complexity of human suffering and human prosperity. You’ll find solid tips for treating a wide variety of psychological issues in a more flexible way. And, finally, you’ll come away with a greater understanding of the “processes of change,” and how to build a solid foundation for an alternative to syndromal diagnosis. The future of mental health treatment is process-based. Whether you’re a clinician, researcher, student, instructor, or other professional working in the mental health field, this breakthrough volume offers everything you need to understand process-based treatment and create a more customized and effective approach to treating clients.

Beyond the DSM Story presents challenges to the Diagnostic Statistical Model (DSM) system from ethical and cultural perspectives, critically evaluating its fit with other professional and theoretical orientations. It offers possible solutions or best practices for addressing ethical, theoretical, and contextual quandaries, along with experiential activities that challenge the reader to think critically about both the problems and the solutions associated with DSM diagnosis. Beyond the DSM Story presents an atheoretical model for incorporating alternative models with DSM assessment. Instructors, students and practitioners will benefit from this critical appraisal of the DSM.

Choice Recommended Read What Psychiatry Left Out of the DSM-5: Historical Mental Disorders Today covers the diagnoses that the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) failed to include, along with diagnoses that should not have been included, but were. Psychiatry as a field is over two centuries old and over that time has gathered great wisdom about mental illnesses. Today, much of that knowledge has been ignored and we have diagnoses such as "schizophrenia" and "bipolar disorder" that do not correspond to the diseases found in nature; we have also left out disease labels that on a historical basis may be real. Edward Shorter proposes a history-driven alternative to the DSM.

Using Munchausen’s Syndrome by Proxy / Factitious Disorder by Proxy and Parental Alienation as exmplars, this book advances a new diagnostic category for addressing complex pathological phenomena that integrates individual characteristics and symptoms, family as well as other system dynamics, under one diagnosis. The author examines why current diagnostic categories within the DSM-5 are inadequate and provides a framework for this new category—Interrelated Multidimensional Diagnosis—to better capture the complexity of MSBP / FDBP and Parental Alienation. The book begins with case studies and other examples to make the material accessible, and then proposes step-wise processes of examining family systems to determine if the phenomena exist to a reasonable degree of scientific certainty. After new diagnostic process and criteria are provided, several interventions and recommendations for treatment are offered in a novel way that attends to the core aspects of these pathologies. This text will provide practitioners, professionals, and researchers with a unique vantage point from which to understand and treat these pathologies.

Includes specific applications of diagnostic and psychotherapeutic considerations for the spectrum of disorders included in the DSMTM. * Uses a "person-in-environment" context unique among books about the DSM-IV-TRTM. * Written by a professor who has taught thousands of students and clinicians across the country the basics of DSMTM in preparation for the licensing exam.

This book synthesizes the best of the new research related to anxiety disorders and how they are classified and diagnosed. Dr. Dean McKay and his co-editors have brought together leading authorities from multiple theoretical traditions to present the new directions and perspectives in the field of anxiety research. The contributors also discuss why current classification systems are inadequate, and what revisions should be made. The book presents in-depth discussions of how anxiety disorders are understood and assessed, as well as potential new implications for DSM-V. Key features: Covers the existing descriptive approach to the study of anxiety disorders, its adequacy in diagnosis, and its limitations Discusses the major theoretical and methodological approaches used to assess anxiety, such as fear circuitry, taxometric methods, actigraphy, neuroscience, and behavioral genetics Reviews diagnostic and classification controversies that center on specific anxiety disorders, such as obsessive-compulsive disorder, social anxiety, posttraumatic stress disorder, and worry This book covers the full spectrum of theoretical and empirical approaches used in the study, diagnosis, and classification of anxiety problems. In short, this volume serves as the authoritative reference book on the conceptualization and diagnosis of anxiety disorders.