Can Grief Really Be a Disorder?
Can Grief Really Be a Disorder?
This chapter explores the debate about eliminating the bereavement exclusion in the DSM-5. The public side of the debate (should grief be classified as a mental disorder?) was largely about the proper place of scientific and psychiatric authority in society. The academic side of the debate (should depressive symptoms that occur between two and eight weeks after the death of a loved one be considered a psychiatric disorder?) was about what is to be counted as a real disorder. The philosophical work of the chapter contrasts the de facto essentialism adopted in much of psychiatry with the more empiricist imperfect community model. From the de facto essentialist perspective, the debate was about how to distinguish a simulacrum of depression that occurs after bereavement from a true depression. From the perspective of the imperfect community model, the debate was about whether some depressions should be normalized.
Keywords: Depression, Bereavement, Essentialism, Reality, imperfect community
MIT Press Scholarship Online requires a subscription or purchase to access the full text of books within the service. Public users can however freely search the site and view the abstracts and keywords for each book and chapter.
Please, subscribe or login to access full text content.
If you think you should have access to this title, please contact your librarian.
To troubleshoot, please check our FAQs, and if you can't find the answer there, please contact us.
