To my mind, the DSM is so intellectually and scientifically outdated on matters of sex that it's almost irrelevant to sex therapists. In my private practice, I've seen way too many patients who visited psychiatrists, received bad, even insulting diagnoses or a fistful of scripts, and show up in my office feeling far worse than if they'd muddled through their sexual conflicts on their own.
This "Bible" of psychiatric diagnoses has always been flawed, sometimes to dangerous, unscientific and harmful levels (such as keeping masturbation listed as a pathological behavior until 1961, and thus offering quack cures throughout the 1950s, including the medical torture and involuntary institutionalization of hundreds if not thousands of trusting patients; and continuing to do the same to homosexuals into the 1980s).
I wrote these words a few years ago, and with recent announcements about a fifth revision to the Diagnostic and Statistic Manual (the diagnostic bible of the APA, used by all psychiatrists, psychologists, and social workers), my views have not changed. I still think the DSM's take on human sexuality is all wrong.
Join me and Jennifer tonight at 11pm et on Seriously Sexual radio as I slice and dice it all into tasty wordbytes. Sex addiction, gender identity, and other politically-charged sex issues will be on my agenda and you're invited to listen in or call up live, (646) 716-4397 between 11pm and midnight tonight.
Also hot tonight: did you catch the Dateline special about "Master Bob," the Grosse Pointe MI BDSMer accused of murdering his (vanilla) wife? We did and we are going to be talking about the story and about NBC's coverage, which prompted an outcry of foul play from the local kink community even before it aired. (I think NBC manipulated the story in some spectacularly annoying ways that were designed to make BDSMers look crazy, and I've got plenty to say about that too.)
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