Abstract
-
This chapter outlines the importance of critically reflecting on the diagnos-
tic criteria for DMDD now included in
DSM-5.
In so doing, it mounts the
argument that DMDD is a new and problematic inclusion to the ‘Depressive
Disorders’ in an extremely influential manual of psychiatric disorders. Sig-
nificantly, the inclusion of this new ‘disruptive’ and ‘energetic’ disorder as a
form of ‘depression’ has yet to meet with substantive critique. DMDD crite-
ria include ‘tantrums’, a point that has been hotly debated. For instance, as
Wakefield (2013) pointed out, ‘Children tend to outgrow these temper tantrum
problems, so treatment and stigma may be applied unnecessarily to large num-
bers of children’ (2013, p. 150). It is unknown how this new child disorder
will impact, positively or negatively or even if it will afford the clarity that it
is hoped to deliver. As Gitlin and Miklowitz (2014) concluded, ‘whether this
new category will advance diagnostic clarity and/or more appropriate treat-
ment is unknown’ (2014, p. 89). The chapter demonstrates how historically
informed analysis can be drawn upon to reflect on how interpretations and
representations of melancholia and depression are very much connected to the
political, the discursive, and, in the 21st century, to the authors of one manual
of mental disorders. For a simple summary of the implications for practice, see
Table 10.1.