Thanks Stephen for this fascinating article about the the inability of psychiatric "experts" who observed 10 people for hours on video to determine which half of the group did and did not have a serious mental disorder. This is particularly surprising as these 10 folks were asked to perform relatively stressful activities. The diagnoses made by the trained experts were no better than chance with only 2 of the 5 serious disorders being properly identified and 2 of the 5 without any type of DSM diagnosis being identified as having one.
What I find baffling about the article, however, is that the only issue discussed by the author, who happens to be a psychiatrist, is that those with serious mental illness shouldn't have to live with a stigma because after treatment they can behave fairly normally. Of course, this reference to having received effective treatment needs to be taken on faith as no real evidence of such is provided. What the author never discusses is the possibility that the five people who had been diagnosed with a "serious mental disorder" had possibly originally been misdiagnosed. This would seem to be a very important consideration, especially considering that the experts who viewed these 10 folks for hours showed a profound deficiency in their diagnostic skills. Or did they? Joan [email protected] > http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/21/health/21mind.html?_r=2&ref=science > > Stephen > ----------------------------------------------------------------- > Stephen L. Black, Ph.D. > Professor of Psychology, Emeritus > Bishop's University e-mail: [email protected] > 2600 College St. > Sherbrooke QC J1M 1Z7 > Canada > > Subscribe to discussion list (TIPS) for the teaching of > psychology at http://flightline.highline.edu/sfrantz/tips/ > ----------------------------------------------------------------------- > > --- > To make changes to your subscription contact: > > Bill Southerly ([email protected]) > > --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly ([email protected])
