The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) represents the most influential effort in the field of mental health to identify psychological and psychiatric abnormalities for the purposes of treatment. The extent to which this effort has been pursued in a rigorously scientific manner, and the ethical issues surrounding the distinction between normal and abnormal mental functioning, are important questions for clarification and debate.

The DSM, which has been compiled and published by the American Psychiatric Association (APA) since its first publication in 1952, is intended to serve as a standard tool for mental health professionals in the diagnosis of mental illness. In addition to providing the field with a definition of the term mental disorder, the fourth edition of the manual (DSM-IV-TR; APA 2000) contains a catalog of the clinical symptoms of 365 different mental disorders (for...