title: Diagnoses, Relational Processes and Resourceful Dialogs: Tensions for Families and Family Therapy.
abstract: The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5), given its psychiatric focus on mental disorders in individuals, presents families and family therapists with challenges. Despite considerable controversies over its adoption, the DSM-5 extends a process of standardizing a language for human and relational concerns. No longer a diagnostic language of professionals alone, its use is medicalizing how mental health funders and administrators, as well as clients, respond to human concerns. For family therapists who practice systemically, particularly from poststructuralist and strengths-based orientations, many tensions can follow when use of the DSM-5 is expected by mental health administrators and funders, or by clients who present concerns about themselves or a diagnosed family member. In this paper, I explore how such DSM-5 related tensions might be recognized, navigated, and negotiated in the practice of family therapy with clients, and with administrators and funders.
authors: Werklund School of Education, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada.
authors: Tom
authors: T
authors: Strong
mesh_terms: D003142:Communication; D039721:Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders; D005195:Family Relations / Q000523:psychology*; D005196:Family Therapy / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy*; D011361:Professional Competence; D011368:Professional-Family Relations; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D016896:Treatment Outcome
keywords: Conversational Practice; Couple and Family Therapy; Psychiatric Diagnoses; diagnósticos psiquiátricos; práctica conversacional; terapia familiar y de pareja; 伴侣和家庭心理治疗; 对话实践; 精神科诊断