Reviews
"Edward Shorter is one of the greatest historians of health care alive today, and maybe the most gifted writer on the topic. In this seminal book Shorter manages not only to bridge the gap between scholar and clinician, but also make a convincing case that psychiatrists have a lot to learn from the history of their own field." -- Ian Dowbiggin, PhD, FRSC, History Department, UPEI "Every scientific field grinds to a halt from time to time and psychiatry is currently stuck in a cul-de-sac. This is when forgotten or inconvenient observations from the past can provide the best way forward. In What Psychiatry Left Out of the DSM-5, Edward Shorter gives us a series of cornerstones that will have to be included in any new building if it is to stand. This book offers food for thought and is a great read" -- David Healy, Professor of Psychiatry, Bangor University; Author, Pharmageddon . "Arguing that recent DSM "knowledge destruction engine" classification systems have been catastrophic for psychiatry, Edward Shorter's polemic is written with a brio-fired challenge. If psychiatry has lost the plot in classifying psychiatric diseases, why not have a model provided by a historian? His 'remembrance and respect of things past' model builds on the wisdom of the consensual experiences clinicians accumulated over the centuries. Here, Shorter demonstrates his masterful and profound capacity to intertwine charting the history of psychiatric classification and to critically appraise it. This is a book to be read by all who wish to understand psychiatry's historical territory and consider a stimulating and provocative alternate road map." -- Gordon Parker, PhD, Scientia Professor of Psychiatry, University of NSW, Australia. " This new book from Dr. Shorter is an engaging romp through the history of psychiatric labeling over 4 centuries. Shorter once again proves he is an accomplished master of the European traditions that migrated to the USA, where they metamorphosed to, well, something else. He has deeply researched the origins of the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders , now in its Fifth Edition (DSM-5). The accounts of horse trading in the DSM committees are at times hilarious. One is reminded of the saying that a camel is a horse designed by a committee! Throughout, there is a principled emphasis on clinical science rather than consensus, a respect for the wisdom of the past, and a grasp of all the threads that should contribute to a scientific classification of mental maladies - from clinical description to pathophysiology. The style is provocative, even cheeky in places, and this book is certain to spark useful dialogues for years to come." -- Bernard J. Carroll, MBBS, PhD, FRC Psych, FRANZCP, Professor and Chairman Emeritus, Department of Psychiatry, Duke University Medical Center Durham
