Diagnosis and the Difference It Makes

Mental health professionals should be attuned to the ideal of compassionate understanding even when faced with clinical and social questions of a large scope: What if the patient is a family rather than an individual? Or a small group, a large group, an organization, a community, or social institution? What if the patient is a whole culture? If all of these are cases in need, can psychiatric assessment of them provide the necessary understanding and devise appropriate and workable forms of help? What are the next evolutions of psychiatric diagnosis and what are the differences in human well-being they can make? The papers in this book are attempts to come to grips with these questions, one by one, cautiously or boldly, according to each author's outlook and temperament.