Introduction to Austrian

While reading the introduction to Sonia G. Austrian's textbook, I was struck by how much I agreed with the criticisms of the DSM and how it categorizes people. As someone who is sympathetic to both the social work criticisms of holistic evaluation and the Szaszian criticism of pathologizing everyday behavior, I have a healthy disdain for the DSM. I have found it only helpful as a shorthand reference to a constellation of symptoms, but as descriptors for people, it falls woefully short.

I see the focus on medication and short-term treatment every day within my placement. The competing imperatives of legal competence restoration and psychotherapeutic treatment make medication the primary intervention. In treatment plans, I get to see how differently psychiatrists as well as psychologists view the patient. While one offers medication and the other therapy, they both focus on diagnosis rather than the person's environment. For a social worker, it's actually interesting to see differential diagnosis and offer opinions. This is not to say that the other professions are blind to the psychosocial environment. Often, their insights into potential outplacement are valuable since I am new to the DMH system. However, ultimately it comes down to symptom management and liability control, and not a successful transition to the community.