Untied States
In 2024, the international standard guide for psychiatrists and health services remains the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) – first published in 1952. Some people believe that its approach and vocabulary such as “disorder” are unhelpful. The British Psychological Society said of the latest edition in 2013: “clients and the general public are negatively affected by the continued and continuous medicalisation of their natural and normal responses to their experiences; responses which undoubtedly have distressing consequences which demand helping responses, but which do not reflect illnesses so much as normal individual variation”.
On the left are 50 phrases made by software translating 50 of the DSM’s diagnostic definitions into five randomly selected languages then back into English. Using the indeterminacy of artificial intelligence and the fluidity of language, we produced jumbled, cryptic phrases—far removed from their original associations. By transforming the authoritative yet contentious terminology of the DSM and juxtaposing it with eclectic artworks, we make space for imaginative conversations around the future of care.
For some, the classifications of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual bring reassurance. In The Collected Schizophrenias, Esmé Weijun Wang—herself diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder—acknowledges that some think of diagnoses like “boxes and labels”, but says she finds “comfort in pre-existing conditions” which suggest she’s not “pioneering an inexplicable experience”.