Bias in Psychiatric Diagnosis

The public has a right to know that when they go to a therapist, they are almost certain to be given a psychiatric diagnosis, no matter how mild or normal their problems might be. It is unlikely that they will be told that a diagnosis will be written forever in their chart and that alarming consequences can result solely from having any psychiatric diagnosis. It would be disturbing enough if diagnosis was a thoroughly scientific process, but it is not, and its unscientific nature creates a vacuum into which biases of all kinds can rush.
Bias in Psychiatric Diagnosis is the first book ever published about how gender, race, social class, age, physical disability, and sexual orientation affect the classification of human beings into categories of psychiatric diagnosis. It is surprising that this kind of book is not yet on the market, because it is such a hot topic, and the negative consequences of psychiatric diagnosis range from loss of custody of a child to denial of health insurance and employment to removal of one's right to make decisions about one's legal affairs. It is an unusually compelling book because of its real-life relevance for millions of people. Virtually everyone these days has been a therapy patient or has a loved one who has been. In addition, psychiatric diagnosis and biases in diagnosis are increasingly crucial portions of, or the main subject of, legal proceedings.
This book should sit next to every doctor's PDR, especially given the skyrocketing use of psychoactive drugs in toddlers, children, and adolescents, as well as in adults, and especially because receiving a psychiatric label vastly increases the chances of being prescribed one or more of these drugs.A Jason Aronson Book

Paula J. Caplan, Ph.D., is a clinical and research psychologist, Adjunct Professor (Research) at the Pembroke Center for Teaching and Research on Women at Brown University, and Adjunct Professor at Washington College of Law, American University, and author of ten previous books. Lisa Cosgrove, Ph.D. is a clinical and research psychologist and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Counseling and School Psychology at the University of Massachusetts at Boston.

Chapter 1 Foreword
Chapter 2 Is This Really Necessary?
Part 3 Part I The Creation of Bias in Psychiatric Diagnosis
Chapter 4 The Construction Of Illness
Chapter 5 The Deep Structure of Bias in Psychiatric Diagnosis
Chapter 6 Creating Post-traumatic Stress Disorder: A Case Study of the History, Sociology, and Politics of Psychiatric Classification
Chapter 7 Abnormal Psychology Textbooks Exclude Feminist Criticism of the DSM
Part 8 Part II Legal Implications of Bias in Psychiatric Diagnosis
Chapter 9 Psychiatric Diagnosis in the Legal System
Chapter 10 Bias and Subjectivity in Diagnosing Mental Retardation in Death Penalty Cases
Chapter 11 What Is It That's Being Called "Parental Alienation Syndrome"?
Part 12 Part III Some Forms that Bias Takes
Chapter 13 The Intersection of Racism and Sexism in Psychiatric Diagnosis
Chapter 14 Clinical Cases and the Intersection of Sexism and Racism
Chapter 15 Should Racism Be Classified As a Mental Illness?
Chapter 16 Ageism in Psychiatric Diagnosis
Chapter 17 The Psychiatric Policing of America's Children
Chapter 18 Confusing Terms and False Dichotomies in Learning Disabilities
Chapter 19 Diagnosis of Low-Income Women
Chapter 20 Seeking "Normal" Sexuality on a Complex Matrix
Chapter 21 Gender Bias and Sex Distribution of Mental Disorders in DSM-IV-TR
Chapter 22 Mislabeling Anxiety and Depression in Rural Women
Part 23 Part IV Specific Labels
Chapter 24 Bias and Schizophrenia
Chapter 25 The Truth about "False Memory Syndrome"
Chapter 26 Reclaiming the Meanings of "Self-esteem"
Chapter 27 Agoraphobia
Chapter 28 Depression in women
Chapter 29 The "Eating-Disordered" Patient
Chapter 30 The Fine Line between Clinical and Subclinical Anorexia
Chapter 31 Histrionic Personality
Chapter 32 Post-traumatic Stress Disorder
Chapter 33 Some Gender Biases in Diagnosing Traumatized Women
Chapter 34 Medicalizing Menstrual Distress
Part 35 Part V Moving Ahead
Chapter 36 A New View of Women's Sexual Problems
Chapter 37 Resisting Diagnosis
Chapter 38 The Importance of Critical Inquiry
Chapter 39 Some Future Contenders