For well over a year now I've been mulling over about the damaging effects of DSM's categorisation of mental pathology. It had never occurred to me that this i

For well over a year now I've been mulling over about the damaging effects of DSM's categorisation of mental pathology. It had never occurred to me that this issue might be of more universal concern. For what it's worth, I think the damage caused by DSM stems from inaccurately modelling mental illness as: (1) binary propositions instead of assessing functionality/dysfunctional on a continuum (i.e. you either have 'major depressive disorder' or you don't); and (2) discrete and distinct 'diseases', instead of the cumulative effects of dysfunction/abnormality in multiple neural 'sub-systems'. If you're interested in the DSM case, and the likely way forward (from my understanding, the convergence of psychiatry and neurobiology and increasingly accurate and affordable neuro-imaging techniques), the textbook "Stahl's Essential Pharmacology" is well worth a read.