Understanding the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) is crucial in any career that functions in a social environment. The teaching of the DSM is no longer exclusive to mental health professionals like psychiatrists or psychologists. Most degrees and courses, regardless of the major, will include basic psychology (including the DSM).
The DSM is important because everyone will deal with it sometime in their career, whether at entry or senior level. The DSM is a guideline, inexhaustive, meaning that diagnosing people with it will never be as straightforward as 1+1=2. But it's the most reliable and accredited manual concerning mental disorders to date. Whether you apply for a job, hire someone for a job, or deal with people on a day to day basis, the DSM will be relevant in your life.
The studying of the human mind and psychology is a relatively new field of science. Thus, the DSM changes regularly when new information comes to light from research. The workforce of the western world and most companies within are equipping pro-mental health policies, which means that frequent psychological diagnosis' of their employees' is being undertaken. In other areas of employment being evaluated by a professional, who will make use of DSM, is mandatory in order to be hired. This includes government employees like the police force, military, special services, security and correctional facility security. Apart from the high-risk jobs, there has been a recent increase in requiring an evaluation when working in sensitive fields of service, like working with children, the disabled, or the elderly.
However, DSM evaluations and profiling will never be 100% accurate, nothing that has to do with people will ever be perfect. But the DSM aids in identifying certain risk factors in individuals who might pose a risk to society, and/or identifying individuals who might be at risk of a psychiatric disorder. By using the DSM guidelines it provides companies insight into whether or not someone is fit for a certain job, or if the requirements of the job might pose a risk to mentally strain the particular individual. Companies are responsible to assure their employees don't pose a risk to others, while at the same time assuring the health of their employees.
Understanding the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual is the foundation of a social science such as psychology. It is important to understand the defining characteristics of each mental disorder and the criteria for diagnosing before one can be applied to a particular person or situation. The DSM is a reference tool meant to be used in conjunction with other reasearch and personal experience. Therapists learn with practice that because of new studies and findings, the DSM requires updating that it does not always receive right away. As with any discipline, it is important to “learn the manual“ or basics well before being able to stray away from it. The Diagnostic and Statistics Manual must be understood because it is used as a guide for diagnosis, therapy, and treatment. If the guide was not understood, there would be no frame of reference for practice.
How important it is to understand the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) is really a matter of what discipline of social science you follow. The field of social science includes a wide range of subdisciplines, including archaeology, economics, history, law, geography, linguistics, anthropology, politics, sociology, and the most relevant for this discussion: psychology.
Given the focus of the DSM on mental disorders, you might understand how it serves as a foundational reference text for psychology and sociology disciplines. Asking whether the manual is important is like asking whether the dictionary or an encyclopedia is important. The answer would be very much so; however, important for particular applications.
Let’s say you’re putting together a paper on the historical development of disorders based upon contemporary attitudes; one source could be the DSMs of yesteryear, which would reveal a range of attitudes that were accepted at the time of publication. An example of this would be the classification of homosexuality as a mental disorder, which persisted until 1987 in the DSM and until 1992 in the World Health Organization’s International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10) publication.
That’s one very specific application of the DSM and not exactly what you might expect its primary function to be. In reality, the DSM characterizes a range of disorders in a rather prototypical fashion. It establishes baseline categories for a variety of manifestations of human behavior and thought. If you look on any clinician’s bookshelf, you’re bound to find a DSM or at least a reference to the DSM from a secondary text. However, the tradition a clinician belongs to and their experience in the field will dictate how much or how little they will reference the manual.
Novice therapists may find themselves routinely revisiting the text, whereas more seasoned professionals may employ it only for its insurance codes. Like instruction, therapy is a skill that develops over time through a steady stream of client interaction, self-reflection, and ongoing training and education. The DSM is merely a starting point.
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0ahUKEwjozJ3-96PbAhUDtlkKHYYbCBEQFggpMAA&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.psychiatry.org%2FFile%2520Library%2FPsychiatrists%2FPractice%2FDSM%2FAPA_DSM_Insurance-Implications-of-DSM-5.pdf&usg=AOvVaw3
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/sacramento-street-psychiatry/201608/is-the-dsm-clinically-useful
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