Diagnosis as Self-Understanding & Self-Alienation

The DSM was never designed nor intended to provide a framework for self-understanding of psychopathology. It is also, in my opinion, quite unsuited for this task. It is a diagnostic manual for use by professionals that assumes a certain degree of professional training. It is not a manual for patients or the general public. The deceptive simplicity of the manual, however, facilitates and encourages its use by non-professionals. This noted by the psychiatrist John Sadler in his book Values and Psychiatric Diagnosis