The real meanings of these 10 insane words are crazy

Posted on February 23, 2016 | 1 Comment

My latest article for The Week is on psychiatric terms that are used very loosely in common speech, such as OCD, ADHD, narcissist, manic-depressive, and paranoid. Want to know what the official diagnostic meaning is? You might be surprised:

10 commonly abused psychology words — and what they really mean

This entry was posted in The Week and tagged ADHD, attention-defict hyperactivity disorder, bipolar, crazy, insane, manic depression, manic-depressive, narcissist, narcissistic disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, OCD, OCPD, paranoia, paranoid, personality disorder, psychopath, psychopathology, psychosis, psychotic, schizophrenia, schizophrenic, The Week. Bookmark the permalink.

One response to “The real meanings of these 10 insane words are crazy”

Wilson | March 24, 2016 at 1:41 pm | Reply

This article reminded me of an interview about problems with the DSM5 from a couple of years ago on The Brain Science Podcast, but I forgot to look for it after reading your article (which I enjoyed).

But, it popped up in my Facebook feed today. So, in case you’re interested, here you go:
http://brainsciencepodcast.com/bsp/2013/dangers-of-diagnostic-inflation-bsp-102

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One response to “The real meanings of these 10 insane words are crazy”

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