Tag: bereavement exclusion

The bereavement exclusion was formally eliminated in the spring of 2013, with the publication of DSM-5. The history of its elimination provides an interesting example of psychiatry's relentless expansion of its net.

Regaining power over our own health was the goal of Ivan Illich’s 1976 book Medical Nemesis, which detailed an epidemic of physician-caused death and illness. This epidemic continues, and so does an epidemic of physician-caused anger, despair and crazy-appearing behaviors. In 2013, the Journal of Patient Safety reported that the “true number of premature deaths associated with preventable harm to patients is estimated at more than 400,000 per year,” making it the third leading cause of death in the United States It is especially drug use errors, communication failures and diagnostic errors that result in another medical nemesis: They can make us appear—and sometimes feel—like we’re “crazy.”

It is refreshing that The New York Times in the space of four days has published two articles which take a critical view of...