The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental as an info-comunicational device

Abstract

Objective To analyze the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) as an info-communicational device. Methods: A bibliographic research was carried out, with a qualitative approach. The DSM was analyzed from the proposal of Foucault (1977), for whom a device is defined by the structure of its heterogeneous elements and by its genesis. Results: The first edition of the Manual, the DSM-I, was prepared by the then American Medico-Psychological Association, which would become the American Psychiatric Association (APA), and published in 1952. It was followed by four editions: the DSM- II, the DSM-III, the DSM-IV and the DSM-5. The DSM-5 was launched in the United States in 2013 and has twenty-two major categories of mental disorders. It was produced by APA and had an extensive network of collaborators for its elaboration. Its target audience is clinicians looking for an official nomenclature for diagnosis, students and researchers. In institutional routines, the DSM is a document that has the power to manufacture and erase categories of mental disorders. Conclusions: This info-communication device managed to stabilize with the DSM-III, remaining stable in the DSM-IV and DSM-5. However, the movements against the DSM that emerged with the publication of the current edition demonstrate dissatisfaction with the current classification system, as the manufacture of mental illnesses seems to increasingly favor the psychopharmacology market. Would these movements be capable of leading to the fading and future collapse of this info-communicational device? Or your transformation? Studies of an interdisciplinary nature are needed to clarify these questions.