Date: Tue, 15 AUG 1995 19:28:26 -0400 From: training Newsgroups: alt.society.mental-health Subject: WHO IS NORMAL? Email Contact: AED@Pipeline.Com THEY SAY YOU'RE CRAZY How the World's Most Powerful Psychiatrists Decide Who's Normal by PAULA J. CAPLAN, Ph.D. "Compellingly argued...a disturbing insider's look at how the mental health establishment decides who is normal and who is 'sick'." ---PUBLISHERS WEEKLY August 15, 1995 -- New York, NY -- The "Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental- Health (DSM) is the bible of the mental-health profession. The DSM ($42 paperback) sells over a million copies annually and is a staple on every therapist's shelf. Every day thousands of mental health practitioners refer to this manual in an effort to label their patients and assess what is normal behavior and what is not. Diagnoses based on categories in the DSM are used to determine who is eligible for insurance reimbursements, who is competent to rear children, who should be hospitalized, imprisoned, or medicated. Less dramatic, but equally important, professional diagnoses determine how patients view themselves and their sanity. As yet, as Dr. Paula J. Caplan discovered while working as a consultant to the exclusive group that writes the DSM, the book is unscientific and potentially dangerous. In THEY SAY YOU'RE CRAZY: How the World's Most Powerful Psychiatrists Decide Who's Normal, (Addison-Wesley, $22/289 pp/ISBN:0-201-40758-2), veteran psychotherapist and best-selling author Paula J. Caplan, Ph.D. reports what she discovered in an astonishing insider's look at the making of the DSM and the dangers involved in pseudo-scientific diagnosis. Nicotine Dependence, Premenstrual Syndrome, Self-Defeating Personality Disorder, and Hypoactive Sexual Desire Disorder are just some of the questionable mental illnesses that have been included in the DSM. In fact, Caplan reveals in THEY SAY YOU'RE CRAZY that many "problems in living" including loneliness, mourning, disempowerment, insecurity, shame, anxiety, and anger become medical conditions at the hands of this elite group. This means people who suffer from these "conditions" could lose custody of their children, lose their health benefits, or be hospitalized against their will. Convincing, shocking, and vital, Dr. Caplan's expose of what goes on in the inner sanctum of the mental-health elite will be intriguing to any American who has ever been in therapy or considered therapy, or who has family or friends under "psychiatric care." ______________________________ Paula J. Caplan, Ph.D., is a clinical and research psychologist and author of seven other books, including: The Myth of Women's Masochism and Don't Blame Mother. She is at work on a play about the DSM and "Delusional Scientific Diagnosing Disorder."