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Author Horwitz, Allan V.

Title The loss of sadness : how psychiatry transformed normal sorrow into depressive disorder / Allan V. Horwitz and Jerome C. Wakefield
Published Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2007

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Description 1 online resource (xiii, 287 pages)
Contents Foreword / Robert L. Spitzer -- 1. The concept of depression -- 2. The anatomy of normal sadness -- 3. Sadness with and without cause : depression from ancient times through the nineteenth century -- 4. Depression in the twentieth century -- 5. Depression in the DSM-IV -- 6. Importing pathology into the community -- 7. The surveillance of sadness -- 8. The DSM and biological research about depression -- 9. The rise of antidepressant drug treatments -- 10. The failure of the social sciences to distinguish sadness from depressive disorder -- 11. Conclusion -- Notes -- References -- Index
Summary Depression has become the single most commonly treated mental disorder, amid claims that one out of ten Americans suffer from this disorder every year and 25% succumb at some point in their lives. Warnings that depressive disorder is a leading cause of worldwide disability have been accompanied by a massive upsurge in the consumption of antidepressant medication, widespread screening for depression in clinics and schools, and a push to diagnose depression early, on the basis of just a few symptoms, in order to prevent more severe conditions from developing. In this book the authors argue that, while depressive disorder certainly exists and can be a devastating condition warranting medical attention, the apparent epidemic in fact reflects the way the psychiatric profession has understood and reclassified normal human sadness as largely an abnormal experience. In telling the story behind this phenomenon, the authors draw on the 2,500-year history of writing about depression, including studies in both the medical and social sciences, to demonstrate why the DSM's diagnosis is so flawed. They also explore why it has achieved almost unshakable currency despite its limitations. Framed within an evolutionary account of human health and disease, the book presents a dissection of depression as both a normal and disordered human emotion and a critique of current psychiatric diagnostic practices. The result is a challenge to the diagnostic revolution that began almost thirty years ago in psychiatry and an analysis of one of the most significant mental health issues today. -- From book jacket
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 249-279) and index
Notes Master and use copy. Digital master created according to Benchmark for Faithful Digital Reproductions of Monographs and Serials, Version 1. Digital Library Federation, December 2002. http://purl.oclc.org/DLF/benchrepro0212 MiAaHDL
English
Print version record
digitized 2011 HathiTrust Digital Library committed to preserve pda MiAaHDL
SUBJECT Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders
Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders. blmlsh
Subject Psychiatry -- Miscellanea
Depression, Mental -- Miscellanea
Mental illness -- Miscellanea
Depression, Mental.
Depression
Depressive Disorder
MEDICAL -- Psychiatry -- General.
PSYCHOLOGY -- Psychopathology -- General.
PSYCHOLOGY -- Clinical Psychology.
PSYCHOLOGY -- Mental Illness.
MEDICAL -- Mental Health.
Depression, Mental
Mental illness
Psychiatry
Genre/Form Electronic books
Trivia and miscellanea
Form Electronic book
Author Wakefield, Jerome C.
ISBN 9780198042693
0198042698
9780195313048
0195313046
1281163767
9781281163769
9781429491716
142949171X
9786611163761
661116376X
0199886067
9780199886067