On the spectrum

摘要

David Kupfer is a modern-day heretic. A psychiatrist at the University of Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania, Kupfer, has spent the past six years directing the revision of a book commonly referred to as the bible of the psychiatric field. The work will reach a climax next month when the American Psychiatric Association (APA) unveils the fifth incarnation of the book, called the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), which provides checklists of symptoms that psychiatrists around the world use to diagnose their patients.