#32: Addiction, Madness, Despair pt. 2: Madness

(07/16/2021) We examine the hopelessly subjective and highly contentious (one could perhaps say psychotic) process by which the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, the so-called bible of psychiatric disorders, has been constructed. Relying heavily on Gary Greenberg's The Book of Woe: The DSM and the Unmaking of Psychiatry, we also discuss the consequences the DSM has both for individuals who accept its narratives about the nature of their suffering and for the prospects for social transformation. Somewhere along the way, we talk about secret societies that exert control through claims to exclusive knowledge in traditional cultures, optical illusions that only occur among industrialized people, and the ways captive animals go insane.

Bibliography for episode 32:

Auxéméry Y. Post-traumatic psychiatric disorders: PTSD is not the only diagnosis. Presse Med. (2018), https:// doi.org/10.1016/j.lpm.2017.12.006

Devi, F., et al. (2019) The prevalence of childhood trauma in psychiatric outpatients. Annals of General Psychiatry 18:15. DOI: 10.1186/s12991-019-0239-1

Edgerton, R. B. (1992) Sick Societies: Challenging the Myth of Primitive Harmony. Free Press.

Greenberg, G. (2013) The Book of Woe: The DSM and the Unmaking of Psychiatry. Blue Rider Press.

Heinrich, J., et al. (2010) The Weirdest People in the World? Behavioral and Brain Sciences 33:61-135.

Herzog, J. I. & Schmahl, C. (2018) Adverse Childhood Experiences and the Consequences on Neurobiological, Psychosocial, and Somatic Conditions Across the Lifespan. Front. Psychiatry 9:420. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2018.00420

Kuhn, T. (1962) The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. University of Chicago Press.

Mason, G. & Rushen, J., eds. (2006) Stereotypic Animal Behavior: Fundamentals and Applications to Welfare. CABI.

Webster, T. (1908) Primitive Secret Societies: A study in early politics and religion. The Macmillan Company.