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Summary: If you want drama read a Harleqin romance novel...
Review: The DSM IV-TR, like its predecessors, is not for general public consumption--that is, unless you want to know what your therapist really thinks about you and is telling your insurance company! Or, perhaps, if you get a kick out of thumbing through the Physician's Desk Reference (PDR) on a Saturday night.
It should be damn dull and incomprehensible to lay people. Only those of us who've learned to use this manual for satisfying the prying eyes of afore mentioned insurance companies need bother purchasing it and breaking its spine.
If you want drama read a Harlequin romance novel.
Rating: 
Summary: Where is this going?
Review: The most current edition of the APA's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual fails to make any significant theoretical or practical improvement over previous editions. The APA's reliance on a "medical model" of diagnosis fails to merge nosology with clinical practice. Although the APA invests significant efforts and finances into creating empirical evidence to support their criteria for diagnosis - if these fail to guide treatment (and they do) of what value are they. An arbirtary diagnostic system, such as this, is just as likely to stigmatize those suffering with a mental disorder and limit treatment options as to aid communication among professionals. To further muddle this process, the APA continues to rely on a rigid categorical system of nosology, retains a primitive view of culture, and provides little direction to explain the value of this lengthy, heavy, and expensive book in the case conceptualization of therapy.
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Summary: DSM IV TR PAPERBACK
Review: The study of mental disorders is an ever evolving process. It is good to see a revision of the old DSM IV which has been in use for the past five years. The book is printed in a easy to read print size and the layout has been updated. There will be other revisions so this is the first of many, until DSM V.
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Summary: Informative, but don't buy it if you have the original DSM-4
Review: The text-revised version is virtually identical to the 1994 version of the DSM-IV and not worth buying if you have the 1994 version. Along with the DSM-IV, the DSM-IV Text Revised version is, however, an informative book that provides good introductory information, especially in the "Diagnostic Features" section, about a wide variety of mental disorders. A problem of the manual, in my opinion, is its use of a categorical classification system while ignoring the dimensional nature of psychological phenomena. Lee J. Markowitz, Department of Psychology, University of Waterloo (Ontario, Canada)
Rating:
Summary: A Medieval Grimoire.
Review: The _DSM_ is a goofy book, designed to categorize "freaks" (i.e. people who "freak out" under stress, that is most people) and deliver them medications which may or may not help (they seem to help me, sometimes anyway) for various reasons. The categories are goofy. For instance, some loved ones sent me into a psychiatrist and I said I had a problem with "stress", that was easy that was "Depression". Soon though I started telling him that I had thoughts that bothered me and that I thought people were against me and that I couldn't sleep. Then, it became "Manic Depression". Then, I told him I had mystical experiences and was religious and thought that God talked to me. It then became "Schizoaffective Disorder". Point being? Well, there is no point. If you "freak out" under stress for whatever reason, you probably will need some medicine to "calm your nerves". Just tell them you "freak out" and have thoughts that bother you and they will get you some nice little pink pills. It may or may not help. No promises. Otherwise, the book is pretty much useless, and belongs with a whole collection of other grimoires and malleficarums from bygone days. The updated version? Well, now it's politically correct. Masturbation and homosexuality are no longer considered "abnormal". That's about the gist of this silly manual of death.
Rating:
Summary: Life-saver
Review: This book really was the best source for my Psychology project. I got everything I needed on my topic right here. Not to mention, it makes for some very interesting reading.
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