A Critique of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and the DSM

Bonnie Burstow

116 citations0/0 files storedJournal of Humanistic Psychology

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Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Research Psychoanalysis and Psychopathology Research Mental Health and Psychiatry

Abstract

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is one of the few DSM categories that was created and became widely accepted as a result of people other than psychiatrists wanting it. Even progressive practitioners tend to assume that it is essentially well constructed and benign. This article shows otherwise. The article fundamentally problematizes PTSD. It demonstrates that the category PTSD is confused, reductionist, contradictory, and arbitrary and that it pathologizes purposeful and valuable coping strategies commonly used by people who are traumatized. It demonstrates, in addition, that the category does not even serve the purpose for which progressive therapists have engaged with the diagnosis and that it cannot simply be “corrected.”

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References

2013Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders 2000Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.1988Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders 1992Trauma and Recovery 2024Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders 1996Trauma: explorations in memory 1977Father-Daughter Incest 1998International Handbook of Multigenerational Legacies of Trauma

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