The Debate Heats Up; are we pathologizing normal behavior?
MD researcher replies to concern over the "DSMing" of everyday life.
This week Dr. Johnathan D. Raskin, State University of New York at New Paltz, published an article in Psychology today expressing concern over a trend of pathologizing normal human behavior in a piece titled Is "Maladaptive Daydreaming" a Mental Disorder?, and put forward that Maladaptive Daydreaming is an overt example of this trend.
This proposed new disorder epitomizes the “DSM-ing” of everyday life, in which any upsetting or problematic experience is readily assimilated into the lexicon of mental disorder. Surely there are people who daydream more than they would like, and some of them might even encounter relational or work difficulties as a result. However, this is true for lots of things. Many of us work...