Systemic perspectives and psychiatric diagnosis: Mutually exclusive or mutually inclusive? Chapter 7

Abstract

In common with most others who work in the field of mental health, the authors have been obliged to develop a professional relationship with the two dominant diagnostic guides, The International Classification of Disease 10 (ICD-10) and the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders 5 (DSM-5). While they concur with the widely held view that there are many problematic issues connected to both diagnostic systems, many of the conflicts generated within the mental health field that we are aware of seem to emerge from the different meanings that are attributed to them and/or the ways in which they are applied. We argue for the position that a system of diagnostic categories is necessary for all psychotherapists, in a parallel but different manner to the way in which it is important for medical practitioners. We systemic therapists also have a fundamental need of organizing the domain of human suffering so that we can bring order to our clinical practice, our research and our professional communication. The most important question is “how?”.