Depression Symptoms Prevalence Tripled: Controversy in Psychiatry Re-emerged

Socially Dependent Mental Illness

According to the most widely used criteria, psychologically abnormal individuals often are deviant from social norms, experience distress that they would rather avoid, pose a danger to themselves or others, and cannot engage in everyday activities. Imagine your life before the COVID-19 pandemic. Did you use to wash your hands as frequently as now? Did you use to worry about getting infected with some virus in the public if not wearing a face mask? Did you use to stay at home (and gain 15 pounds) for several months? The answers are likely to be no because otherwise, you would have been considered abnormal in the past.

In fact, mental disorders are also heavily dependent on social context. Before the Emancipation Proclamation, physician Samuel A. Cartwright prosed the "mental illness" of drapetomania, which is characterized by the desire of slaves to run away. The idea seems ridiculously absurd to us today but was plausible to some people in the past due to the social context. On the other hand, isn't it reasonable to see extreme worries about not being able to make ends meet as a normal response to lay-off during COVID-19? Is DSM-5 pathologizing us?

Works Cited: Abnormal Psychology. (2017). Comer, R.J. & Comer, J. S. Worth Publishers.