Cotton and Ridings discussed the revision of the fifth DSM, a diagnostic and statistical Manual of mental disorder published by the American Psychiatric Association that is use by physicians, health insurance and other medical officials. Cotton and colleague looked at how politics influence the exclusion of homosexuality as a mental disorder and the inclusion of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in the DSM (2011, p.1)
From the earliest classification, we saw many influences that shape each revision. The U.S. Census Bureau was influential in "the earliest classification systems of mental disorders, and those systems predominated for nearly a century"(cotton and Ridings, 2011). Not satisfied with the manual the Census officials again demanded more changes to have a more standardized classification system for mental disorders which would include collection of data. This lead to the birth of the Statistical Manual for the use of Institutions for the insane.
Two issues Cotton and Ridings believed should be discuss are …show more content…
The gay and lesbian community had to overcome discrimination, oppression and even being placed in a category called “other non-psychotic mental disorders” (cotton and Riding, 2011, p188).
From as early as the first world war, many physicians were unsure how to diagnose the “dazed, disoriented state many soldiers experienced during combat and even after” called it shell shock (Cotton, Riding, 2011, p.192). Others reference the disorder as “combat fatigue and even gross stress reaction which was included in the first DSM edition. Still, many felt the diagnosis was incomplete, and later in 1967 Cotton and Ridding wrote that a group calling themselves Vietnam Veterans against war (VVAW) fought hard to have PTSD included in the DSM-111