05 May Occupy the APA
May 5, 2012
In addition to Catherine Jackson’s thoughtful and comprehensive overview of the issues involved in the DSM-5 controversy I wrote about yesterday, there’s some other worthy reading. That’s partly due to the American Psychiatric Association (APA) holding its annual meeting this weekend in Philadelphia. Last week the APA posted the latest draft of the proposed changes to the manual on its website and it will be a major agenda item among this 10,000 member organization.
Whatever happens inside the convention halls, what goes on outside is equally newsworthy. Demonstrations planned by Occupy the APA are bringing medical and social work professionals together with concerned citizens, psychiatric patients and consumers to peacefully protest the many troubling aspects of DSM-5.
Some articles to check out:
How do controversial revisions in psychiatry’s guidebook make you feel? by Stacey Burling in the Philadelphia Inquirer
This Weekend, Philadelphians can say “Screw You” to Normal by Liz Spikol in the Philadelphia Magazine blog
Protestors, Rejecting Mental Illness Labels, Vow to “Occupy” the American Psychiatric Association Convention is a press release from MindFreedom International (MFI), an independent voice of survivors of psychiatric human rights.
An article in the Minnesota Post entitled Last Chance to comment on psychiatry’s controversial diagnostic “bible” by Susan Perry speaks to a number of the controversies of DSM-5 including adding bereavement to the definition of depression.
On a hopeful note, Maia Szalavitz writes for Time.com that the public debate and petition signing is not falling on totally deaf ears: DSM-5 Debate: Committee Backs Off Some Changes, Re-Opens Comments.
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