That\'s all well and good but try and tell a person who is cowering in the corner that the hallucination they are seeing that happens to want to eat them is a social construction. There is a difference in behavioral/personality disorders and actual organic disorders. Schizophrenia falls into both catagories in some of it\'s severest forms.
I believe you mean well but i suggest doing some actual work w/ patients diagnosed as schizophrenia and other such disorders before making a statement such as you have.
Exactly. I see what you mean Buquebus in that psychology and psychiatry are flawed and inexact sciences. However, there is a big difference between someone who is eccentric and therefore looked at funny by society and someone who is schizophrenic. Like I mentioned earlier, my uncle was schizophrenic, and I can tell you that is was more than a "social construction." He went through a lot of his life terrified. Had no firm grasp on reality, had no real ability to communicate with others, and was constantly scared that various people were plotting against him or out to get him. This includes family members who loved and cared about him. So you can go ahead and say that he was just \'harmlessly different\' or something, but I\'d have to disagree. Your post makes it apparent that you don\'t really understand how dramatic schizophrenia can be.
Also, I do not think it is a bad thing that the # of classifications in the DSM has risen. Psychology in its modern conception is a very young science. Progress should cause more classifications- it shows that doctors are working harder to see differences in peoples\' symptoms instead of just throwing them all into one of a few overgeneralized catergories. And definitions of disorders SHOULD change as we come to better understand them. Would you rather everything stay static? If definitions of mental/emotional disorders didn\'t change throughout time we would still be drilling holes in peoples\' heads to "let the demons out."
By the way, if you use quote someone you should reference your source- it makes it easier for us to follow up on your post. I would like to see the context of the sentence you quoted.
