LogFAQs > #904001948

EightySeven posted...

Yes, the same book that countless doctors use to diagnose mental illnesses thus invalidating your snide, asinine remark about how people can't disagree with the World Health Organization because doctors created their guidelines despite the fact that it's far from representative of the psychology community as a whole.

The DSM-V, however, is not any way indicative of whether or not the DSM-VI will reflect this change. Citing the DSM's current state as being representative of the current prevailing opinions in the medical field ignores that it's not at all a new book. It'll be used as the basis for diagnosing mental disorders until a new version (or at least revision) is released, but that doesn't automatically mean it's the best possible practice. Just that it's the current diagnostic standard.

ParanoidObsessive posted...

I would too. But less because it's been "proved" to be objective fact in any way, and more because the social sciences in general and psychology in particular have always been strongly influenced by public opinion and political pressure.

What? Social sciences are influenced by social factors? Alert the Internet!

Less sarcastically, that's more or less the same point I'm making. There will be opposition to this decision from people who are not at all medically qualified and have no actual reason to oppose it except that they don't like the idea of trans people and therefore don't want their existence validated in any way. There will be support for this decision from people who are not at all medically qualified and have no actual reason to support it except that they want to be accepting of people they feel are at risk of being stigmatized (as well as in response to the former group of people). In truth, everyone should just **** off and let science do its job, whether the results conform to their preconceived biases or not.

ParanoidObsessive posted...

Arguably, the exact same same thing can be said of all body dysphoria disorders, yet very few people would argue that anorexia is a "lifestyle choice" or a "natural" mindset as opposed to implicitly accepting that anorexia is very much a disorder, and needs to be treated rather than tolerated or ignored.

Very arguably. Treatment for eating disorders is largely mental. It's often paired with diets and nutritional supplementation to help repair the damage done, which are physical treatments, but that's how the effects are treated, not the disorder itself. Similarly, sewing up the wrists of somebody who attempted suicide doesn't turn depression into a physical disorder.

The argument for calling gender dysphoria a physical disorder comes in that the treatment approach is to alter the body to match the mind. That's also done in some other examples of BDD (Clench's breast reduction, to use a PotD example), so you could make a similar argument there, but in the case of eating disorders in particular, it's necessary to change the mind instead.

Zeus posted...

I fully expect "Anorexic Pride" to be a thing next.

Whether or not that's a bad thing really depends on what you mean by "pride." Being proud of being anorexic? That's a bad thing, though acknowledging that is relatively new given the body ideals that have been promoted by the modeling industry. Not being ashamed of being anorexic? As with any mental disorder, that's unambiguously a good thing.
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