DSM Reviews

The First Interview : Revised for DSM-IV, by J. Morrison is a detailed and forthright tool for obtaining critical information from the client during the first session, while maintaining the clinician's ability to develop trust and rapport with the client. The use of vignettes offers the reader opportunity to visualize how the book's message might be utilized with clients. I have found this book to be of particular benefit to new interns, and to those who are working in government funded facilities, as it provides instruction for gaining the information required for developing an accurate diagnosis and creating an assessment plan such as are required for Medical clients. It is also a good review for clinicians regarding such issues as formulating effective questions and dealing with resistance. I suggest reading the book before one begins seeing clients face-to-face, as it will help to prevent the beginning clinician from developing poor clinical skills.

Morrison's approach to providing information and direction for the first interview is clear, detailed, informative, and right on the mark. As a first year social work student I wish that I had been able to read this book before I started my field placement. He takes you step by step through the process of the first interview--what to expect, what to do, how to handle different situations. Again, he is right on the mark. What makes this book such a great resource is that Morrison presents the material in a clear and concise manner. This is the type of book that you will open again and again as a reference and a refresher as you progress in your practice. Whether you are working with kids or the elderly, I highly recommend buying this book if you are thinking about going into social work, are a social work student or a practicioner.

I was very disappointed with this book, especially since Teaching Basic Social Skills to Youth is an excellent companion volume. This book is quite lightweight by comparison.

Most of the DSM-IV disorders are covered. The diagnostic criteria for each disorder are listed on a one half of a page while the skills that need to be taught are listed opposite. Many of the skills are very general, e.g. anger management. To be fair specific skills are also suggested. A framework within which to situate the teaching is sketched at the end of the book.

The book is trying to cover a vast amount of ground, and in my opinion, the framework that is there isn't developed enough to ground some of the recommendations. There is a sense of 'trust us, these are the skills for disorder X'.

Peculiarly the book completely ignores autism, Asperger and PDD. No social skills programmes are suggested for these groups. They aren't even listed among the DSM-IV disorders covered in the book. Given the volume of resources devoted to autism, this is a most bizarre omission.

Those reservations aside, many who are actively working with difficult youth will find something of value here. How you value the book depends ultimately on your requirements.

Teachers always identify "what's wrong" with their special needs students. Here's a book which will assist in turning things around to a positive point of view.

The authors have written several excellent and easily applied programs for the special education classroom. Their guidelines and skill breakdowns have become the "Bible" of my classroom. The concepts can be applied at all developmental levels, yet it's not a one size fits all approach.

I recommend this book to all educators; both regular ed and special ed. There's information in here for everyone to apply in their daily classroon activities.

Fundamentals introduces diagnositic interviewing in a simple and straightforward manner. The chapter on the mental status exam is one that I return to many times. It alone makes the book worthwhile. The psychodynamic and characterological aspects are not to the level of other older texts (i.e MacKinnon and Michels). Overall this book has been very useful to me as a psychiatry resident. It is as important to have at the desk as Kaplan and Sadock's textbook.

I really like the way this book is organized. Each topic is broken down into the same few areas, making reference easy. The language is easy to understand and the charts are helpful for studying. The case studies are also helpful in getting a full understanding.

While there is nothing wrong with intelligent criticism, I could find very little in this book. Sadly, there are mental health professionals who abuse their positions and behave unethically, as there are in every other profession. That does not mean we should throw out the DSM because people have misused it.

It is also true that there has been bias arising from cultural ignorance, sexism, etc. And yes, politics is sometimes involved in decisions. Which profession has been immune from these things? In general, the mental health profession has been trying to increase professionals' understanding of cultural contexts for behavior through coursework and changes in the new DSM-IV-TR.

Even though this book sometimes includes actual material from the DSM, it basically misrepesents the facts about mental disorders. For example, it says a person can be diagnosed with major depression simply because he or she has trouble sleeping. While sleep disturbance may be a symptom of depression, someone who knows what she/he is doing knows that it may not be depression at all. Depression involves much more than that. The DSM is not perfect, and indeed a few classifications are questionable, such as schizoid personality disorder (extreme introversion). I am not sure whether that one is truly a disorder. The authors say that the DSM patholgizes everyday behavior. Does spending an hour or more every day washing one's hands over and over(obsessive compulsive disorder) seem like everyday behavior?

This book is weak and pointless, a disappointing attempt at criticism.

I'm a big fan of Thomas Szasz; I enjoy the work of Peter Breggin; I am certainly a critic of modern psychiatry, the pathologizing of behavior, and labeling. HOWEVER, this is not a good book.

If there is a good book out there on the DSM, I would like to read it. This just isn't it.

For instance, there are a couple good points regarding Borderline Personality Disorder. However, it is buried in a chapter that attempts to assert that BPD was invented to free therapists from responsibility when they have sex with their patients.

Mostly, I just kept thinking "SO?" or "What's the point? ". I'm a psychiatric social worker, I use the DSM frequently, and I don't like it.

I would like to read a well-written book on the subject.

This just ISN'T it.

For those of us who eagerly consume critiques of the mental health industry, this book is not necessarily what we have come to expect. I often expect what amounts to a quick adrenalin rush, with horror stories of abuse by the system driving me to the barricades. Kutchins and Kirk do not provide a quick rush, nor even a quick read. But when you find yourself on the barricades, they do give you the ammunition.

This is a very detailed social/political history of the DSM, in and out of committee meetings and individual correspondence, providing the evidence of the point made so well by others such as Kaplan: that the DSM is in fact a political document, evolving to suit conflicting political and financial interests. More than a story of good guys and bad guys, much of this history includes the sad moral of unintended consequences, as in the fight to get PTSD into the DSM.

I teach undergraduate psychology, and I applaud the authors' coherent explanations of technical issues such as reliablity and validity of assessment. My teaching experience informs me that this is a tedious exercise for most students, and, I assume, for the educated lay readership to whom Kutchins and Kirk appeal. But it is critical to the central theme of the story: the misuse of the aura of science to mask a fundamentally political process.

Are there victims and villains of this process? Of course, and they are the usual villains: a system of managed care, and a variety of bureaucracies and agencies pursuing government funding, grants and influence based on ultimately manipulated numbers. And the usual victims: the over-labelled, over-prescribed and stigmatized recipients of "care".

The story wanders through so many mazes that a reader may lose the thread: PTSD, homosexuality, female masochism, borderline personality disorder. Each story differs in who started the process of getting a diagnosis in or out of the DSM, the motivation for doing so, the outcome of the fight, and the specific consequences. Fortunately, the authors provide an excellent summary in the last chapter, and weave those threads back together.

More than once in reading this book, I found myself thinking that every political or social issue fight needs its policy wonks. Kutchins and Kirk may be our wonks.

This text was helpful in preparing for the clincial liscensing exam. I was able to quiz myself and check my answers prior to sitting for the LCSW exam. I have used it in supervision with students. I would caution that this is based on the DSM III and is no longer current for exam purposes. However, it is fun to use in discussions regarding differential diagnosis.

I read this book hoping to understand the process and personality of PTSD. What I found was a very clinical book not geared for the "beginner". Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder: DSM-IV and Beyond is more of a text book giving statistics, graphs and reports on the illness. I would not recommend this book to the person who is wanting updated information on PTSD treatment or to the person who wants easy-reading biographical stories.

Instead I recommend "Transforming Trauma: EMDR (The revolutionary New Therapy for Freeing the Mind, Clearing the Body, and Opening the Heart)" by Laurel Parnell, Ph.D., to anyone who wants to understand PTSD and how EMDR has helped some people overcome fear, phobia, anxiety attacks and other symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder.

"Transforming Trauma: EMDR" (ISBN 0-393-04053-4) is written by a clinical psycologist and is very easy reading. Lots of biographical stories and an appendix on how to choose an EMDR therapist. After reading 10 chapters (275 pages)... I felt really good and very hopeful. :) Happy Reading, Jenny

This was a poorly designed study guide for the National Boards in Psychiatry, with many badly thought out questions. Internal inconsistencies, confusing questions, or downright incorrect material was not hard to come by. For example, strategically omitted "nots"--as in "which of the following do not occur"--transformed some questions to nonsense. Furthermore, half the questions are of the now-obsolete "K" type. I would advise those preparing for the boards to save their money and apply it toward a prep course or another book.