The Book of Woe: The DSM and the Unmaking of Psychiatry

"Gary Greenberg has become the Dante of our psychiatric age, and the DSM-5 is his Inferno." --Errol Morris

Since its debut in 1952, the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders has set down the "official" view on what constitutes mental illness. Homosexuality, for instance, was a mental illness until 1973. Each revision has created controversy, but the DSM-5 has taken fire for encouraging doctors to diagnose more illnesses--and to prescribe sometimes unnecessary or harmful medications.
Respected author and practicing psychotherapist Gary Greenberg embedded himself in the war that broke out over the fifth edition, and returned with an unsettling tale. Exposing the deeply flawed process behind the DSM-5's compilation, The Book of Woe reveals how the manual turns suffering into a commodity--and made the APA its own biggest beneficiary.

Author: Gary Greenberg
Publisher: Plume Books
Published: 11/25/2014
Pages: 416
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.70lbs
Size: 8.50h x 5.60w x 1.10d
ISBN13: 9780142180921
ISBN10: 0142180920
BISAC Categories:
- Psychology | History
- Psychology | Psychopathology | General
- Medical | Psychiatry | General

About the Author
Gary Greenberg is a practicing psychotherapist and author of Manufacturing Depression and The Noble Lie. He has written about the intersection of science, politics, and ethics for many publications, including The New Yorker, Wired, Discover, and Rolling Stone. He is a contributor at Mother Jones, and a contributing editor at Harper's, as well as the recipient of the Erik Erikson Award for mental health reporting. Dr. Greenberg lives with his family in Connecticut.