Abstract

The stated purpose of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders is to classify mental disorders. However, no tenable operational definition of mental disorder is offered in the manual. This leaves the possibility open that the behaviors labeled as disordered in the DSM are not members of a valid category. Attempts to define mental illness fall into the category of essentialist or relativist based, respectively, on the acceptance or denial of the existence of a defining biological attribute that all mental disorders possess. However, the disorders in the DSM cannot be accounted for by either of these approaches making it unlikely that they represent a single valid concept. Simultaneous inclusion of brain illnesses and normal behaviors in the DSM are a likely explanation for the disparate nature of DSM disorders