Abstract
In this article I draw on two scenarios from my personal life—the diagnosis of my newborn grandnephew with CHARGE syndrome and the diagnosis of my father with depression—to reflect on whether and when diagnosis may be harmful to patients (and their families). Despite the great differences between the two scenarios, I argue that in both cases the tendency of diagnosis to generalize, categorize, and stigmatize can lead to insidious and counterproductive effects. The perspective of disability studies can help physicians to anticipate, minimize or avoid these negative ramifications. I also reflect on the matter of who "owns" a particular diagnosis, whose purposes it serves, and how.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
American Psychiatric Association. 1968. DSM-II. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 2nd edition. Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Association.
American Psychiatric Association. 1980. DSM-III. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 3rd edition. Washington, D.C.: American Psychiatric Association.
Amundson, Ron. 2010. “Quality of life, Disability, and Hedonic Psychology.” Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour 40 (4): 374-292. DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-5914.2010.00437.x
Carey, Benedict. 2016. “An Alternative Form of Mental Health Care Gains a Foothold.” New York Times. August 9. http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/09/health/psychiatrist-holistic-mental-health.html.
Couser, G. Thomas. 1997. Recovering Bodies: Illness, Disability, and Life Writing. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.
———. 2002. “Referred Pain, Conferred Pain, and Euthanasia Narrative.” https://www.academia.edu/19623776/Referred_Pain_Conferred_Pain_and_Euthanasia_Narrative.
———. 2011. “What Disability Studies Has to Offer Medical Education.” In Humanitas: Readings in the Development of the Medical Humanities, edited by Brian Dolan, 292-305. San Francisco: University of California Medical Humanities Press.
Goffman, Erving. 1961. Asylums: Essays on the Social Situation of Mental Patients and Other Inmates. Chicago: Aldine.
Greenberg, Gary. 2010. Manufacturing Depression: The Secret History of a Modern Disease. New York: Simon and Schuster.
Hamkins, SuEllen. 2013. The Art of Narrative Psychiatry. New York: Oxford University Press.
Kaysen, Susannah. 1993. Girl, Interrupted. New York: Random House.
Kirk, Stuart A., and Herb Kutchins. 1992. The Selling of DSM: The Rhetoric of Science in Psychiatry. New York: Aldine de Gruyter.
Lewis, Bradley. 2006. Moving Beyond Prozac, DSM, and the New Psychiatry: The Birth of Postpsychiatry. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
———. 2011. Narrative Psychiatry: How Stories Can Shape Clinical Practice. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Linton, Simi. 1998. Claiming Disability: Knowledge and Identity. New York: New York University Press.
Mairs, Nancy. 1997. Foreword. In Recovering Bodies: Illness, Disability, and Life Writing, edited by William L. Andrews, ix-xiii. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.
Zimmerman, Lee. 2007. “Against Depression: Final Knowledge in Styron, Mairs, and Solomon.” Biography 30 (4): 465-90.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Couser, G.T. Disability, Depression, Diagnosis, and Harm: Reflections on Two Personal Scenarios. J Med Humanit 40, 239–251 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10912-016-9420-6
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10912-016-9420-6