What It Says in My Psychology Text - Part 1

I purchased and looked over a revised edition of my college psychology text a few days ago. I came across a couple of interesting things.

One is that it turns out that the reason for the ever-expanding list of diagnoses in the DSM*, is so that insurance companies will pay for treatment! HMO's and the like are not going to pay for years of treatment by a therapist for something vague like "adjustment problems" - they're more likely to pay if the patient's problem is given a medical-sounding name like "Borderline Personality Disorder".

Of course thanks are due the profession for helping to give more people access to treatment. And at least this dispels the notion that the ever-increasing number of ailments is due to some industry obsession or panacea, or the psychologizing of our society. I mean, it does dispel that notion..doesn't it?...


*Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders - what shrinks and other professionals use to diagnose their patients, i.e. to label the patient's "condition".