• kungen@feddit.nu
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    4 days ago

    DSM

    Miss me with that American junk :P But with the same logic, would you also say that gender incongruence is a mental disorder? It’s in the same books, in similar sections. It’s faux pas to call something a mental disorder without focusing on why it’d be that.

    The ICD (and I would hope the DSM) focuses mostly on the distress the patient gets from their condition. Someone’s attraction to kids, without any actions, isn’t enough to get diagnosed, as it’s simply a paraphilia. If they’re distressed by it, or act out, then it’s a diagnostic criteria and something they’d be able to get treatment for.

    • HatchetHaro@pawb.social
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      4 days ago

      Gender incongruence may be in the same book now, but being in the book does not necessarily mean it is a disorder (e.g. paraphilia). In fact, in DSM-5, gender incongruence (they call it gender dysphoria) was actually renamed from “gender identity disorder” to avoid the word “disorder”.

      DSM-5 defines a paraphilic disorder as “a paraphilia that brings distress, or when satisfied, brings harm to self or others” (paraphrased). I think pedophilia fits that description, because “if satisfied”, that’s what we’d consider “bringing harm to others”. Perhaps the ICD has a different definition?

      I mean, I didn’t set the standards or write the books. All of these things have way too much complexity to properly categorize in the ever-shifting standards of society in different geographic and cultural regions, so of course different countries and different experts would treat these things differently. That also means what counts as a “mental disorder” can vary wildly from region to region. I daresay this is a universe where you and I are both right on the matter!

      I’m not sure about the criterion differences between the ICD and DSM-5, and I for sure do not know enough to be an authority on the matter.