Paula J. Caplan

Paula J. Caplan argues in the following viewpoint that many of the mental health professionals who consulted in the compilation of mental disorders in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) are misogynistic white males who pathologized normal female behavior. Furthermore, the American Psychiatric Association is chauvinistic in that it refuses to recognize unhealthy, traditionally masculine behavior as mental disorders. Caplan, a clinical and research psychologist, is the author of They Say You’re Crazy: How the World’s Most Powerful Psychiatrists Decide Who’s Normal.

As you read, consider the following questions:

1. According to Caplan, why is the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders so influential?
2. What are two of the misogynist diagnoses in the DSM, as cited by the author?
3. What...