Chapter One
Conceptual Problems with the DSM-IV
Criteria for Posttraumatic
Stress Disorder
RICHARD J. McNALLY
Department of Psychology, Harvard University, USA
Controversy has haunted the diagnosis of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) ever since
its appearance in the third edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental
Disorders (DSM-III; American Psychiatric Association [APA], 1980). At the outset, psychiatrists
opposed to the inclusion of the diagnosis in DSM-III argued that the problems
of trauma-exposed people were already covered by combinations of existing diagnoses.
Ratifying PTSD would merely entail cobbling together selected symptoms in people
suffering from multiple disorders (e.g., phobias, depression, personality disorder) and then
attributing these familiar problems to a traumatic event. Moreover, the very fact that the
movement to include the diagnosis in DSM-III arose from Vietnam veterans' advocacy
groups working with anti-war psychiatrists prompted concerns that PTSD was more of a
political or social construct, rather than a me ... read full excerpt from Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: Issues and Controversies ebook
