A new study is out and purports to overturn the diagnostics from DSM-5. While a great deal of legitimate criticism has been leveled at DSM-5, this is not included in that distinguished body of scientific work.

To whit: the common criticism against DSM is that it is dealing with an incredibly dynamic subject, the human mind. This means that different disorders will affect different people in different ways, as the incredible dynamism means that no two people are alike. This means that all definitions will be murky to an extent, as they embrace spectrums rather than points. This idiotic study, published in Psychiatry Research, declares that this fact makes the DSM unscientific.

Nonsense. Science is perpetually cognizant of its own shortcomings and is continually changingits classifications and approaches to match new discoveries. While this has led to a great deal of pseudo-science, the adoption of spectrums is not in error. Very few elements exist in absolutes, the very existence of a meter indicates that thinking in terms of spectrums is vital to scientific clarity. This does not conflict with our experience of the universe as a series of binary choices, as the universe consists of the intersection of these lines. By definition, such intersections show up as points, leading to a functionally binary universe. Another complaint from the study is that the DSM has a definition of normal. No elaboration is necessary here.

The rest of the study highlights offshoots from the original point, how the DSM attempts to categorize disorders, and that the study authors don’t like that. Too bad, it is the necessary function of a diagnostic system to create categories, by arguing against such classification you indicate that you do not believe in the very foundation of science, the ability to know what you are talking about. Granted, many modern ‘scientists’ don’t believe in knowing what they are talking about either, but that is an indictment of them and their teachers, not of science. The study also complains that the DSM puts a great deal of focus on disorders, while not focusing enough on the trauma that might cause them. Except that DSM isn’t supposed to be a doctor, that is the psychiatrists’ job. The DSM is only meant to provide a list of current disorders, nothing more.