Rationally Speaking #98 - Jerome Wakefield on Psychiatric Diagnoses: Science or Pseudoscience?

Rationally Speaking Podcast

New York City Skeptics

Society & Culture, Skepticism, Science, Philosophy

4.6 • 787 Ratings

🗓️ 8 December 2013

⏱️ 54 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

What qualifies someone as mentally ill? The standard for diagnosis is the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), which just released a 5th edition in 2013 -- but just how objective is it? This episode of Rationally Speaking features Dr. Jerome Wakefield, psychiatrist, PhD in philosophy, and author of "The Loss of Sadness: How Psychiatry Transformed Normal Sorrow into Depressive Disorder." Julia, Massimo and Jerome talk about the arbitrariness of the DSM and the controversies around the boundaries of various mental disorders, including depression and sexual fetishes.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Rationally speaking is a presentation of New York City skeptics dedicated to promoting critical thinking, skeptical inquiry, and science education.
0:22.4	For more information, please visit us at NYC Skeptics.org.
0:35.5	Welcome to rationally speaking, the podcast where we explore the borderlands between reason and
0:39.9	nonsense. I'm your host, Massimo Pilucin. With me as always is my co-host, Julia Galev. Julia, what are we
0:45.7	going to talk about today? Well, Massimo, today I am pleased to welcome our guest, Jerome Wakefield,
0:50.3	who is a professor of social work and also the conceptual foundations of psychiatry at New York University.
0:57.5	Jerry holds two PhDs in social work and in philosophy, as well as a master's degree in math.
1:04.0	So he gives Massimo a run for his money in terms of degrees acquired over the years.
1:08.3	It's not competition.
1:09.5	That's what you say, Massimo.
1:12.3	Jerry has published over the years. It's not competition. Uh-huh, that's what you say, Massimo. Jerry has published over 150 publications in journals in all sorts of fields, as well as co-authored
1:19.2	two books, The Loss of Sadness, How Psychiatry transformed Normal Sorrow into
1:24.8	Depressive Disorder, that was in 2007, and more recently, all we have to fear, psychiatry's transformation of natural anxieties
1:31.9	into mental disorders just a couple years ago.
1:35.2	Jerry, welcome.
1:36.0	It's so nice to have you on the show.
1:37.3	I'm delighted to be here.
1:38.5	Thank you.
1:39.1	All right.
1:39.4	So my first question is basic, which is, I take it you don't have a particularly positive view of the
1:45.7	DSM approach to psychiatry.
1:48.7	And so could you just give us the brief outline?
	...

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