ICD the DSM classification system

Although at first sight the DSM-IV classification system appears to provide clinicians with a useful framework of which to view their clients, on closer inspection however, the picture is somewhat less satisfactory. Criticisms of the system range from Wakefield's (1997) analysis that psychological presentation ranges from problems of living to harmful dysfunction; through to Livesley, Schroeder & Jang's (1994) counter-argument that evidence of discontinuity between different diagnoses and normality would support the DSM's proposal of distinct diagnostic categories. …

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