As has been widely publicized and discussed, the American Psychiatric Association (APA) has recently issued a revised version of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), a book sometimes termed a “bible” for mental health professionals. The manual might better be called a dictionary, as it aims to provide a vocabulary established by general (though not unanimous) agreement among mental health professionals so that they can productively discuss how best to help people who exhibit disabling emotional and/or intellectual conditions. The diagnostic labels and the lists of elements for each that appear in the manual are the product of votes taken at general conclaves held, often decades apart, by the APA after recommendations are made by committees assigned to explore current research and experience around specified types of emotional and/or intellectual dysfunction. As its authors would be the first to admit, the DSM’s resulting diagnostic categories and constituent elements are far from perfect and, while intended as a tool to help clinicians, should be used with skepticism and with a heavy dose of direct and personal clinical judgment.

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