DSM-IV Happy
I recieved the product in brand new condition and very quick delivery. Thank you Amazon!
A Handy Guide for Survival on the Amazon ....
.. and believe me, survival is getting tougher! When your reviews are assaulted by trolls and sock puppets, it's of the utmost utility to diagnose the specific personality disorder, sociopathy, or psychopathy of your assailant in order to determine the proper modus of response: Courteous Engagement, Aloof Engagement, Disengagement, Strict Inattention, Notification to the 'Keepers' of Inappropriate Behavior, and Response in Kind are the most common modi, with the latter being almost invariably the worst choice. Here are some of the most frequently encountered syndromes:
Multiple Personalities: reviewers/commenters with two or more screen names, invariably identifiable by stylistic criteria. "Sock puppetry" is almost always indicative of underlying hostility, verging on sociopathy. Report any overt misbehavior to the Keepers, do not engage with either persona, hope that the two will eventually fall upon each other and self-cancel for lack of outside stimuli.
Borderline Personality Disorder: neither psychologists nor psychiatrists have discovered a therapy or a medication for treating BPD. Don't imagine, therefore, that you can do better. Aloof Disengagement shading toward Strict Inattention will be justified. Choosing the "ignore" option is only a partial fix; obnoxious comments and 'not helpful' votes will continue to sully your reviews. However, if you do choose to 'ignore' such an assailant, do NOT announce your choice! The BPD sufferer will merely consider your announcement false and will increase her/his challenging behavior.
Narcissistic Personality Disorder (courtesy of an "authority" on the subject): "a pervasive pattern of grandiosity, need for admiration, and a lack of empathy. The narcissist is described as being excessively preoccupied with issues of personal adequacy, power, and prestige. Narcissistic personality disorder is closely linked to self-centeredness." Self-esteem based on legitimate accomplishments is, unfortunately, not incompatible with narcissism. It's the frustrated narcissist, however, who is most likely to behave most aggressively on the internet.
Compulsive Sycophants: usually harmless, occasionally even well-meaning, but capable of sudden reversal of polarity and subsequent compulsive stalking. Courteous engagement is an option, so long as distance is strictly maintained. Above all, don't encourage the Sycophant to become 'identified' with your own screen persona.
Dependent Personality: the patient who falls in love with his/her therapist, or the front-row student who moons at her/her teacher. There are two common errant responses to such a personality, both of them unethical. First, of course, is the narcissistic response; to bask in the adulation and allow the appearance that it is fundamentally sincere and well-deserved. Second, and far more risky, is the exploitative response: to reply seductively. The most therapeutic response is probably selective inattention, limited to an occasional "thanks" and/or diversionary shifting of focus.
Ideological Personality Disorder: this is of course not a coherent single syndrome, but rather a multifarious symptom of other underlying mental disorders. The commonest expressions, these days, of ideological derangement are: fanatical denial of the possibility of anthropogenic climate change; paranoid denunciation of 'liberals' and other figments of the ideologue's imagination; implicit racist and classist sentiments, most often hotly denied; inveterate rejection of evolution and evolutionary thinking; delusional support for States' Rights, unregulated free-market economics and/or anarcho-capitalism, rabid conviction that everything in Europe is awry, and uncritical acceptance of disinformation from hypnogogic media demagogues. Sufferers from IPD tend to associate and coagulate into 'movements' -- the Tea Party is an example -- whereupon they become ever more delusional and assertive. It is the reviewer's therapeutic responsibility to respond to IPD sufferers as courteously, concisely, and coherently as possible; never to engage in competitive or abusive exchanges; and yet to be aware that Ideology is a severe mental disorder for which no cure has been discovered. However, if the reviewer is thin-skinned, invested in her/his work, and/or prone to taking umbrage at being insulted by rabid fools, he/she would do better to take up quilting.
Naturally, there are many further categories of disorder that one will encounter in practice. This modest, pocket-sized "desk reference" will not suffice for all of them, in which case the sincere reviewer will need to refer to the full DSM-IV, a volume considerably "larger than a bread basket" but replete with consolations.
Super Handy!
I purchased the DSM IV because I am almost done completing my BS in Psychology and with all the papers I have to write, having this as a reference is amazing. I am looking forward to the 6th edition!
dsm-iv
We purchase this book for all new clinicians at our community mental health center. It is incredibly helpful to them and the consumers we served on establishing a diagnosis. My only reason for 4 stars rather than 5 is price of each copy, granted better than full DSM-IV but still gets pricey when buying 10 copies.
functional, but I'd get the bigger one if purchasing again
Ok, I already had the big one in one office, but I work out of two. I purchased this because it is portable, and the spiral binding is more resilient. However, I really miss the differential diagnosis information, the epidemiology and prevalence information. It is nice to have the criteria, but you can get that easily enough online nowadays. I would buy the big one if you are only getting one or two, so you can get the useful information that was omitted from this edition for the sake of size.
(54 reviews)
