Astral Codex Ten

DSM

4 min read

DSM

Article

DSM is a recurring publication in the Astral Codex Ten archive, appearing 10 times across 10 issues between January 28, 2021 and May 14, 2025. The archive places it in contexts such as “stuck it in the DSM!”; “If most mental disorders are dimensional variation rather than taxa, that kind of makes the DSM look pretty silly, doesn’t it?”; “According to the DSM, depression has eight core symptoms”. It most often appears alongside Twitter, China, Ethan Watters.

Metadata

  • Category: Publications
  • Mention count: 10
  • Issue count: 10
  • First seen: January 28, 2021
  • Last seen: May 14, 2025

Appears In

Source Context

Recovered passages from the original issue text. When the raw archive preserved outbound links inside the source passage, they are listed directly under the quote.

Ontology Of Psychiatric Conditions: Taxometrics
January 28, 2021 · Original source
And intermittent explosive disorder! This is the fake disorder we made up so that we had something to diagnose angry people with! I don’t think anyone thought this one was real, not even the psychiatrists who invented it and stuck it in the DSM! But here come the taxometricians, saying that schizophrenia and bipolar and whatever are mere dimensional variation, but IED (yes, that’s really the acronym) is an honest-to-goodness crisply-defined category based on objective reality? What gives?
If most mental disorders are dimensional variation rather than taxa, that kind of makes the DSM look pretty silly, doesn’t it?
Ontology Of Psychiatric Conditions: Dynamical Systems
February 03, 2021 · Original source
According to the DSM, depression has eight core symptoms: low mood, lack of interest in activities, appetite change, slow movements, tiredness, feelings of worthlessness, poor concentration, and suicidality. You could imagine a dynamical system among all these variables, with each doing complicated things to the others, until they settled into some kind of attractor or other.
Book Review: A Clinical Introduction To Lacanian Psychoanalysis
April 26, 2022 · Original source
No direct inline source block was recovered for this mention.
In Partial, Grudging Defense Of The Hearing Voices Movement
May 25, 2022 · Original source
No direct inline source block was recovered for this mention.
The Psychopharmacology Of The FTX Crash
November 16, 2022 · Original source
No direct inline source block was recovered for this mention.
You Don't Want A Purely Biological, Apolitical Taxonomy Of Mental Disorders
January 25, 2023 · Original source
No direct inline source block was recovered for this mention.
Book Review: The Geography Of Madness
February 22, 2023 · Original source
No direct inline source block was recovered for this mention.
Highlights From The Comments On Geography Of Madness
February 27, 2023 · Original source
No direct inline source block was recovered for this mention.
The Psychopolitics Of Trauma
January 25, 2024 · Original source
No direct inline source block was recovered for this mention.
petfree
May 14, 2025 · Original source
No direct inline source block was recovered for this mention.