Saving Normal Book Review

In Saving Normal, Frances, who is the former chairman of the task force that organized the 4th edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, warns readers that the DSM-5, offers an irresponsible set of proposals that will turn everyday stressors into mental illnesses. Outlining faddish syndromes of the past, Frances argues that whenever we freely label a set of human behaviors as a "disease," we lost a bit of our diversity and adjustability. Frances acknowledges that we all have psychiatric symptoms from time to time, but this doesn't mean we are all on the verge of a mental illness.
The author’s point is to make the reader aware of diagnosis inflation, the over-medicating that is taking place today, and doctors' inability
On page 29 for example, he discusses “disease mongering.” This opened my eyes to all the many players involved in diagnosis inflation. I have become more critical of researchers, the media, and advocacy groups since reading Saving Normal. I have a better understanding now of how money is allocated and why it would be to a researcher’s advantage to inflate their specific disease population (because they receive greater research dollars). And a large, well–financed “awareness” campaign can create disease where none existed before. Before reading this book, I was suspicious of drug representatives, but now my suspicion has spread to the doctors as well who collaborate with these representatives to receive incentives to write the prescriptions. I agree with the author in his suggestion of banning marketing straight to the consumer. Like I previously wrote, his suggestions for how to go about changing the current environment are limited. My professional growth from reading Saving Normal is also limited if one specifically means new information obtained. But the enhanced critical perspective I take away I will not soon