The Book of Woe
The DSM and the Unmaking of Psychiatry
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Narrated by:
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David Drummond
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By:
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Gary Greenberg
About this listen
For more than two years, author and psychotherapist Gary Greenberg has embedded himself in the war that broke out over the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (the DSM) - the American Psychiatric Association's (APA) compendium of mental illnesses and what Greenberg calls "the book of woe".
Since its debut in 1952, the book has been frequently revised, and with each revision, the "official" view on which psychological problems constitute mental illness has changed. Homosexuality, for instance, was a mental illness until 1973, and Asperger's gained recognition in 1994 only to see its status challenged nearly 20 years later. Each revision has created controversy, but the DSM-5, the newest iteration, has shaken psychiatry to its foundations.
The APA has taken fire from patients, mental health practitioners, and former members for extending the reach of psychiatry into daily life by encouraging doctors to diagnose more illnesses and prescribe more therapies - often medications whose efficacy is unknown and whose side effects are severe. Critics - including Greenberg - argue that the APA should not have the naming rights to psychological pain or to the hundreds of millions of dollars the organization earns, especially when even the DSM's staunchest defenders acknowledge that the disorders listed in the book are not real illnesses.
Greenberg's account of the history behind the DSM, which has grown from pamphlet-sized to encyclopedic since it was first published, and his behind-the-scenes reporting of the deeply flawed process by which the DSM-5 has been revised is both riveting and disturbing. Anyone who has received a diagnosis of mental disorder, filed a claim with an insurer, or just wondered whether daily troubles qualify as true illness should know how the DSM turns suffering into a commodity and the APA into its own biggest beneficiary.
Invaluable and informative, The Book of Woe is bound to spark intense debate among expert and casual listeners alike.
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Engrossing but...
- By Lilly F. on 12-30-20
By: Alice Dreger
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One Nation Under Therapy
- How the Helping Culture is Eroding Self-Reliance
- By: Christina Hoff Sommers, Sally Satel
- Narrated by: Dianna Dorman
- Length: 8 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Americans have traditionally placed great value on self-reliance and fortitude. Recent decades, however, have seen the rise of a therapeutic ethic that views Americans as emotionally underdeveloped, requiring the ministrations of mental-health professionals to cope with life's vicissitudes. Today, having a book for every ailment, a counselor for every crisis, a lawsuit for every grievance, and a TV show for every problem degrades one's native ability to cope with life's challenges.
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If you want another perspective
- By Kurt on 03-07-09
By: Christina Hoff Sommers, and others
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Desperate Remedies
- Psychiatry’s Turbulent Quest to Cure Mental Illness
- By: Andrew Scull
- Narrated by: Jonathan Keeble
- Length: 18 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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For more than two hundred years, disturbances of the mind—the sorts of things that were once called "madness"—have been studied and treated by the medical profession. Mental illness, some insist, is a disease like any other, whose origins can be identified and from which one can be cured. But is this true? In this masterful account of America's quest to understand and treat everything from anxiety to psychosis, one of the most provocative thinkers writing about psychiatry today sheds light on its tumultuous past.
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A Great History but I Have One Big Reservation
- By Jeffrey Scot Minch on 08-02-22
By: Andrew Scull
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The Panic Virus
- A True Story of Medicine, Science, and Fear
- By: Seth Mnookin
- Narrated by: Dan John Miller
- Length: 10 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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The Panic Virus is a gripping scientific detective story about how grassroots radicals, snake-oil salesmen, and cynical journalists have perpetrated the biggest health-scare hoax of all time. It explores what happens when the media treats all viewpoints as equally valid, regardless of facts, from parents who are convinced that vaccines caused their children's autism to right-wing radicals who believe that climate change is a myth
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Incredible thorough journey
- By Rachel Dewald on 03-22-11
By: Seth Mnookin
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Doing Harm
- By: Maya Dusenbery
- Narrated by: Dara Rosenberg
- Length: 13 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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Editor of the award-winning site Feministing.com, Maya Dusenbery brings together scientific and sociological research, interviews with experts within and outside the medical establishment, and personal stories from women across the country to provide the first comprehensive, accessible look at how sexism in medicine harms women today.
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One of the most important books ever written
- By Dresden on 03-18-18
By: Maya Dusenbery
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Unbroken Brain
- A Revolutionary New Way of Understanding Addiction
- By: Maia Szalavitz
- Narrated by: Marisa Vitali
- Length: 12 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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Challenging both the idea of the addict's "broken brain" and the notion of a simple "addictive personality", Unbroken Brain offers a radical and groundbreaking new perspective, arguing that addiction is a learning disorder, and shows how seeing the condition this way can untangle our current debates over treatment, prevention, and policy.
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Not what I expected
- By Jennifer Sader on 08-28-16
By: Maia Szalavitz
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US of AA
- How the Twelve Steps Hijacked the Science of Alcoholism
- By: Joe Miller
- Narrated by: Sean Patrick Hopkins
- Length: 6 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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Five years in the making, this brilliant, in-depth investigative reporting on the history, politics, and science of alcoholism will show how AA became our nation's de facto treatment policy, even as evidence for more effective remedies accumulated. US of AA is a character-driven, beautifully written exposé, full of secrecy, irony, liquor industry money, the shrillest of scare tactics and, at its center, a grand deception. US of AA shines a much-needed spotlight on the addiction treatment industry. It will forever change the way we think about the entire enterprise.
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A Detailed History of Alcoholism
- By Tricia O. on 04-03-19
By: Joe Miller
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The Depths
- The Evolutionary Origins of the Depression Epidemic
- By: Jonathan Rottenberg
- Narrated by: Walter Dixon
- Length: 4 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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Nearly every depressed person is assured by doctors, well-meaning friends and family, the media, and ubiquitous advertisements that the underlying problem is a chemical imbalance. Such a simple defect should be fixable, yet despite all of the resources that have been devoted to finding a pharmacological solution, depression remains stubbornly widespread. Why are we losing this fight?
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Great read for understanding
- By Adam on 02-04-15
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Counterclockwise
- Mindful Health and the Power of Possibility
- By: Ellen J. Langer
- Narrated by: Sandra Burr
- Length: 7 hrs and 10 mins
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If we could turn back the clock psychologically, could we also turn it back physically? For more than 30 years, award-winning social psychologist Ellen Langer has studied this provocative question, and now has a conclusive answer: opening our minds to what's possible, instead of clinging to accepted notions about what's not, can lead to better health at any age.
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Surprisingly disappointing
- By Stephen on 06-23-09
By: Ellen J. Langer
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Mistakes Were Made (But Not by Me): Third Edition
- Why We Justify Foolish Beliefs, Bad Decisions, and Hurtful Acts
- By: Carol Tavris, Elliot Aronson
- Narrated by: Carol Tavris, Elliot Aronson
- Length: 12 hrs and 11 mins
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Renowned social psychologists Carol Tavris and Elliot Aronson take a compelling look into how the brain is wired for self-justification. When we make mistakes, we must calm the cognitive dissonance that jars our feelings of self-worth. And so we create fictions that absolve us of responsibility, restoring our belief that we are smart, moral, and right - a belief that often keeps us on a course that is dumb, immoral, and wrong. Backed by years of research and delivered in energetic prose, Mistakes Were Made (But Not by Me) offers a fascinating explanation of self-deception.
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If you're a liberal hater - this book's for you
- By MRN on 11-13-20
By: Carol Tavris, and others
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Clean
- Overcoming Addiction and Ending America’s Greatest Tragedy
- By: David Sheff
- Narrated by: Jeff Cummings
- Length: 13 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Addiction is a preventable, treatable disease, not a moral failing. As with other illnesses, the approaches most likely to work are based on science - not on faith, tradition, contrition, or wishful thinking. These facts are the foundation of Clean, a myth-shattering look at drug abuse by the author of Beautiful Boy. Based on the latest research in psychology, neuroscience, and medicine, Clean is a leap beyond the traditional approaches to prevention and treatment of addiction.
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Unbearable narration
- By John on 09-10-14
By: David Sheff
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Back to Normal
- Why Ordinary Childhood Behavior Is Mistaken for ADHD, Bipolar Disorder, and Autism Spectrum Disorder
- By: Enrico Gnaulati
- Narrated by: Matthew Kugler
- Length: 8 hrs and 31 mins
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A veteran clinical psychologist exposes why doctors, teachers, and parents incorrectly diagnose healthy American children with serious psychiatric conditions. In recent years there has been an alarming rise in the number of American children and youth assigned a mental health diagnosis. Current data from the Centers for Disease Control reveal a 41 percent increase in rates of ADHD diagnoses over the past decade and a forty-fold spike in bipolar disorder diagnoses. Similarly, diagnoses of autism spectrum disorder has increased by 78 percent since 2002.
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surprisingly useful and specific
- By SaturdayDad on 03-07-14
By: Enrico Gnaulati
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Good format for initial exposure to the material.
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In this astonishing and startling book, award-winning science and history writer Robert Whitaker investigates a medical mystery: Why has the number of disabled mentally ill in the United States tripled over the past two decades? Every day, 1,100 adults and children are added to the government disability rolls because they have become newly disabled by mental illness, with this epidemic spreading most rapidly among our nations children. What is going on?
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The author does not use a fair scientific approach
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In the 1980s, American psychiatry announced that it was time to toss aside Freudian ideas of mental disorder because the true path to understanding and treating mental illness lay in brain science, biochemistry, and drugs. This sudden call to revolution, however, was not driven by any scientific breakthroughs. Nor was it as unprecedented as it seemed. Why had previous efforts stalled? Was this latest call really any different? In Mind Fixers, Anne Harrington offers the first comprehensive history of the troubled search for the biological basis of mental illness.
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A summary relevant to each of us
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A paradigm-shifting study of neurodivergent women - those with ADHD, autism, synesthesia, high sensitivity, and sensory processing disorder - exploring why these traits are overlooked in women and how society benefits from allowing their unique strengths to flourish.
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What listeners say about The Book of Woe
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Paul Minot
- 11-25-22
A dishy take on psychiatry's diagnostic charade
This scintillating narrative exposes the absurd game of inside baseball that was played, while America's psychiatric heavyweights sought to create a more perfect collection of sham diagnoses. The audio version is well acted, and highly recommended if you like schadenfreude.
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- Alednam A Uonopk
- 10-22-24
interesting book....
This book was good. Among other books I've read, it helped connect other points from other perspectives. All in all it was a good book. May listen to again in the future to refresh and reflect....
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- Danielle Abbott
- 12-29-14
Psychiatry a pastime for only dummies.
Amazing. Inspiring. Earth shattering. Mind altering. Perspective breaking information that can literally have you at the edge of your seat both begging for more and asking to be done with it. This book touched me in a truly hard place. I am a direct descendent of Robert spitter. But everything in this book is 100% right. And the perspective itself I think is infallible. This book if in enough people's hands. Can change the world. Will it? I don't know. I can only speak from my experience as I prepare myself to read and listen again. To be captivated by experience and moved by the only thing that should move this world, truth!!!
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5 people found this helpful
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- Susan
- 09-09-13
The Book of Whoa!
What would have made The Book of Woe better?
The fact that Gary Greenberg is only a psychotherapist and not a psychiatrist immediately raises the red flags that he has his own agenda to promote. He does. He has divorced himself from the whole sorry mess and does not use any codes or bill insurance companies. He does say that he tries to be benevolent in his billing scale. He further advocates for boys who want to be girls and vice versa and helps his patients to rationalize whatever behavior they choose.
Would you ever listen to anything by Gary Greenberg again?
No
Would you be willing to try another one of David Drummond’s performances?
Yes
What character would you cut from The Book of Woe?
This question is not really applicable to this book, but I suppose that I would have found the book more acceptable, if he hadn't pushed his own agenda so obviously.
Any additional comments?
I agree wholeheartedly that the DSM-5 is a book that no one really needs to buy and that the entire practice of psychiatry and psychology is pseudoscience.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Alexander Hauptman
- 11-11-24
Author's rage
I thought the book was unscholarly and reflected that the author seemed to have an axe to grind. This criticism is despite agreement with the author's point of view.
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- NYNM
- 06-03-13
Disappointment
This could be a very good book, and quite accurate, if the writer (and narrator) weren't so dramatic. Greenberg clearly has an axe to grind, so his approach is very slanted. Most clinicians (I am one) know there are many many flaws in DSM IV and 5; we work around it. But Greenberg takes it too literally. There are some issues ("diagnosis" needed for insurance, drug companies exploitation) but in general, i day-to-day clinical practice, DSM is not a "bible" nor a main ingredient.
As a result, Greenberg intends an anti-psychiatry screen rather than a balanced critique of DSM, and the profession. Its not fair, nor accurate; it is a one-sided approach.
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14 people found this helpful
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- Cecil Morgan
- 03-10-21
Slams the DSM, while barely indulging solutions
It's bureaucratic history lesson at best and a problematic slam poetry essay at worst.
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