Why psychiatrists do and do not define ‘me’: the dropping of Asperger syndrome from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM)

In recent months there has been much furore concerning the publication of the latest version of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-V, 2013), published by the American Psychiatric Association. The latest edition of this manual, which aims to provide criteria by which mental disorder is classified, has included a number of changes to how the ‘autism spectrum’ is now to be defined. The terms Asperger Syndrome and PDD-NOS have been dropped to be replaced by Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and Social Communication Disorder (practically ‘autism’ without the associated ‘repetitive interests’). In the new definition of ASD, social interaction difficulties have been subsumed within the category of social communication, whilst sensory processing differences have appeared, but have been subsumed within the category of repetitive and restrictive behaviours. Diagnosis will also be seen in terms of ‘severity’.