Saving Normal: An Insider’s Revolt Against Out-of-Control Psychiatric Diagnosis, DSM-5, Big Pharma, and the Medicalization of Ordinary Life

Wary of liberties being taken by the psychiatric community with its definition of “normal,” Frances (Essentials of Psychiatric Diagnosis) goes on a sobering foray through mental disorders and the social institutions that have defined and redefined them. These recalibrations will be promulgated, most prominently, by the soon-to-be-published DSM-5. Frances, who served as the chairperson for DSM-IV, explains that the new version of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (widely known as the “bible of psychiatry”) has been recklessly expanded and rejiggered, to the point that nearly anything can now be pegged as an aberration. Such “diagnostic inflation” entails the obvious risks of unnecessary and/or excessive treatment, but perhaps even more pernicious is its grander effects on what society—not just specialists—deem normal. Despite Frances’s years of professional experience, his analysis is sometimes scattered with historical and cultural asides that, while interesting, do not clarify the trajectory and impact of the DSM. Still, few are as well-equipped as Frances to map the dynamic field of psychiatry, and his rendering of its shifting contours is timely, crucial, and insightful—as are his solutions for navigating it. Agent: Carrie Kania, Conville and Walsh Literary Agency (U.K.). (May)