Dr. Keith Ablow, who resigned from the APA in protest “some time ago,” criticizes the unscientific and arbitrary process by which diagnoses are generated for the APA’s “big seller (and huge profit center)” the DSM. “This would be really funny, it it weren’t really dangerous,” he says, “The DSM-V will be used by hundreds of thousands of clinicians who may think that they are understanding their patients better … But those labels aren’t driven just by science, but by political, economic and commercial forces within the American Psychiatric Association that may have nothing to do with the wellbeing of patients – or with reality.”
© 2024 Mad in America Foundation
The same Ablow who wrote this abomination of an op ed about Chaz Bono? This is one ally opponents of the DSM can DO WITHOUT.
“But Chaz Bono should not be applauded for asserting she is a man (and goes about trying to look like one) any more than a woman who believes she will be happier without arms, has them removed and then continues to assert that she was right all along—her self-concept was that of a double amputee. Now, all is well.
Chaz Bono should not be applauded any more than someone who, tragically, believes that his species, rather than gender, is what is amiss and asks a plastic surgeon to build him a tail of flesh harvested from his abdomen. If only a plastic surgeon would acquiesce, all would be well.”
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2011/09/02/dont-let-your-kids-watch-chaz-bono-on-dancing-with-stars/#ixzz1uwalrVlG
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The same Ablow that cowrote a book with Glenn Beck and is a frequent contributor on Fox News “analyzing” motivations of celebrities, political leaders, and suspected criminals without any real information. While Ablow does reach a particular audience and it is interesting that he also has come out against DSM5, he can certainly afford to after cashing in on selling bigotry psychobabble with some of the most unthoughtful people on television. His treatment of Chaz Bono on TV add in writing was really horrendous, and I can’t imagine what kind of clinician he’d actually be given his stage presentation (not a helpful one.) He actually strongly advised parents to keep children from watching Dancing with Stars when Chaz was a contestant because it was too “toxic” and dangerous to see a transman on tv.
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Wow. I had no idea.
Still, if you’re trying to get people to jump on your bandwagon…
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Media matters collected a lot of Ablow commentary last year. It seems he left the APA in response to to their disagreement with his comments about Chaz Bono.
http://mediamatters.org/research/201112190003
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Don’t complicate the scene any more than it is while that written about the DSM V (and previous ones) is the truth. The psychopolitics is the crap not needed and adds to the crap of the DSMs.
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