The DSM, ICD and Transgender Pathologization
The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) has been targeted by transgender advocates as a source of pathologization for transsexuals and transgender people (TSTG). The DSM is used by those attacking TSTG people when they assert that TSTG have a mental illness that should be treated instead of granting them their civil and political rights. Some hatemongers also assert the TSTG, like homosexuality can be cured. Transgender advocates point to the total deletion of homosexuality from the DSM in 1973 as a milestone in depathologization of homosexuality as a model for progress in TSTG depathologization. Members of the American Psychiatric Association (APA), which develops the DSM, are pushing back. What is this controversy all about, anyway? I did some investigation and found some surprising facts. I also found some dirty little secrets about the DSM. Turns out the DSM is a sham and is irrelevant to the real issues.
First, here are the basics. The DSM is basically a list of mental disorders with numeric codes that are used in billing insurance and in accounting in government health services. It is a way psychiatrists and psychologists to get paid for treating mental disorders – or so it would appear. In the truth is something else which I will discuss below. There have been five iterations of the DSM and the current one is DSM-5. There are currently four billing codes associated with TSTG behavior in the DSM. In the DSM-5 (sometimes referred to as DSM-V) they are gender dysphoria in children, gender dysphoria in adults, autogynephilia fetishism, and transvestic fetishism.Click the link above for access to the article
#ICD10 #ICDRemediator #ICD10Matters #HealthIT
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