Arrived at by what psychiatrists call “consensus,” which in reality is no more scientific or sophisticated than a vote of insider hands, the DSM-IV contains a record 374 so-called mental disorders.

Perhaps the best example of psychiatry’s scientific pretension in creating and augmenting the DSM is the manner in which new “illnesses” are added to it. Psychiatrists literally vote on what constitutes a mental illness or disorder by raising their hands at a conference. There is no medical evidence presented, no brain scans, blood tests or any other medical criteria needed to establish a disorder in the DSM; it is 100% subjective.

A psychologist attending a DSM hearing noted, “The low level of intellectual effort was shocking. Diagnoses were developed by majority vote on the level we would use to choose a restaurant. You feel like Italian, I feel like Chinese, so let’s go to the cafeteria. Then it’s typed into a computer.”

In the absence of objective, scientific evidence, psychiatry has decreed the following to be mental illnesses:

• Phonological Disorder

• Caffeine Related Disorder

• Conduct Disorder

• Mathematics Disorder

• Nicotine Use or Withdrawal Disorder

• Non Compliance With Treatment Disorder

• Separation Anxiety Disorder

• Sibling Rivalry Disorder

• Phase of life problem

• Sexual abuse of a child problem

and the all-encompassing

• Unspecified mental disorder

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