The DSM-V, the standard classification of mental disorders used in the United States, is considered by many to be the bible of the psychiatry world. Its descriptions of mental illness provide guidance to clinicians and insurers on diagnosis and treatments. But the manual has also been criticized over the years for its categorical approach to mental disorders, for symptom lists that are too strict or not strict enough, and for its many iterations and revisions.
[Is the DSM’s approach outdated?]
In her new book The Power of Different: The Link Between Disorder and Genius, psychiatrist Gail Saltz adds her own critique to that list. Saltz asks what if what the DSM—and by extension the society—considers brain disorders are actually brain differences? “It’s arguable that what we call mental disorder—as if it were an aberration—is in fact a natural part of our diversity as a species,” she writes.
As a psychiatrist, Saltz understands that not all mental disorders can be viewed in such a wholly positive way. Every illness, from dyslexia to autism, comes with its own challenges and painful struggles. But with those challenges come some unique creative abilities. Citing the often stigmatized bipolar disorder, Saltz writes: “Arguably, if you removed all of those with bipolar disorder from the arts and creative fields, there would be vastly less creativity in the world. We would have no Hemingway. No Anne Sexton. No Virginia Woolf. Very possibly no Beethoven, either.”
Dr. Gail Saltz joins Ira to discuss her thoughts on creativity abilities and the many categories of brain difference.
Segment Guests
Gail Saltz
Gail Saltz is the author of The Power of Different
(Flatiron Books, 2017). She’s a Clinical Associate Professor of
Psychiatry at New York Presbyterian Hospital in New York, New York.
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