<p>For psychologists, it’s held in incredibly high esteem-the Bible of their profession. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, published by the American Psychiatric Association, provides diagnostic criteria for mental disorders. It’s widely used in the United States by everyone from health insurance companies to policy makers to clinicians. The DSM is on its fifth revision since its beginnings in 1952, and it calls for both praise for its in-depth coverage and a fair amount of criticism. Opponents attack first and foremost the idea that there is a single objective diagnostic test of any mental illness in the field of psychiatric. Therefore, they question the reliability and construct validity of the diagnostic categories and criteria in the DSM. It may be very standardized at this point, but critics still say any claim of an empirical foundation for the Manual is quite overstated. About ten years ago, Harper’s Magazine featured an essay which criticized the lack of hard science, the vague language, and the proliferation of disorders. Also, despite some acknowledgment of this problem in the introduction, many experts complain that the system of classification in the DSM makes random categorical distinctions between disorders and between normal and abnormal.</p>