Intended for healthcare professionals

Letters Medicalisation of normality

Mental illness does exist

BMJ 2012; 344 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.e3536 (Published 28 May 2012) Cite this as: BMJ 2012;344:e3536
  1. Jonathan Lyons, specialist trainee year 4 in child and adolescent psychiatry1
  1. 1Norfolk and Suffolk Foundation Trust, Mary Chapman House, Norwich, UK
  1. jonathanplyons{at}doctors.org.uk

Spence lays out several familiar arguments in his critique of the fast approaching Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fifth edition (DSM-V)—biological reductionism, labelling, and medicalisation as a proxy for capitalist greed.1 I have some sympathy for these arguments and find it interesting that he focuses …

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