English Professor and author Christopher Lane recently wrote an editorial for the Star Tribune about the process (flawed in his opinion) for revising the “Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.” This probably gathered less attention than recent laments about our collapsing economy, but the two topics are more closely related than one might think.
As Lane explains, the DSM sets the rules by which insurance companies deny or approve payment for the treatment of emerging “conditions” such as compulsive shopping and parental alienation. Lane disputes the idea that such behaviors should be treated as real mental illnesses, and I tend to agree with him. They may be real conditions but it is a mistake to lump them in with diseases like schizophrenia.
My fear is that with these emerging “conditions” being defined as mental illnesses, funding for serious and persistent mental illnesses like schizophrenia will be shifted away. Maybe that seems selfish or even paranoid, but I’ve seen it happen over and over.
My dream is to see people with serious mental illnesses, such as schizophrenia, get the care they need to recover. Because I’ve also seen people recover, become contributors rather than consumers, and live meaningful, productive lives..
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As an individual who does a lot of research into Parental Alienation Syndrome I can safely say that PAS is a mental illness brought on by years of brainwashing and/or conditioning. As a stepparent I see first hand what it does to my stepchildren and anyone who knows them can see it as well. Not to mention that I was also alienated as a child. And like numerous other mental conditions it does carry over into adulthood, parenthood etc. A child who has been alienated I can almost guarantee will raise their children the same way because it is what they know because it is how they were raised. The only difference is this mental condition also causes the same condition in the target parent.
So at the risk of sounding rude, you should really do your research before stating something is or is not real because I know for a fact that PAS is as real as you or I.
To Anonymous: Thank you for your heartfelt response and believe me when I say that I understand. In my 30 years, not a day has gone by that I don’t see the heartache families go through.
I never said that Parental Alienation Syndrome was a real phenomena. I questioned whether it rises to the level of a mental illness worthy of inclusion in the next revision of the “Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.”
There are many conditions that can negatively impact a person’s life. Racism comes to mind, but we don’t generally regard racism as a mental illness. Maybe we should, but one obvious problem is that racism is pretty darn common. I suspect parental alienation is also common. Perhaps they exist, but I am not familiar with validated tests which distinguish clinical Parental Alienation Syndrome from run-of-the-mill parental alienation.
I think Professor Lane’s point is that pathologyzing an increasing segment of common behaviors is a slippery slope. My point is that authorizing health care professionals to bill third-party-payers for treating an ever-expanding list of “conditions” is fine, as long as we’re willing to give these payers more and more dollars from which to pay.
Expecting these payers to cover additional “conditions” with the same (or fewer dollars) has led, and will lead, to fewer resources available for treating unambiguous mental illnesses like schizophrenia.
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