Beyond Diagnosis

             I’ve just returned from two psychiatric meetings in Philadelphia (the American Academy of Psychoanalysis and Dynamic Psychiatry and the American Psychiatric Association) where I was exposed to a wealth of information, including dialogue about the new Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of mental disorders; the fifth edition is to be published in May 2013.

 Diagnosis has undergone many changes since the days of Doctor Benjamin Rush (1745-1813 )  the father of American psychiatry. The first Diagnostic and Statistical Manual was published in 1952.

The history of psychiatry and the evolution of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual manifests the mutability of diagnostic categories which are also linked to cultural changes.

By contrast, what doesn’t change in us Humans is the prevalence of Negative Thinking. Negative thoughts often surface more readily than positive ones, and cross diagnostic categories.

(There is no diagnosis for negative thinking except when accompanied by other symptoms which place it in the category of depression. Negative thinking is more pervasive  and prevalent than clinical depression.)

An example of negative thinking is the person who looses weight but fails to register the accomplishment and  instead, berates himself for not achieving the final goal.

The mind tends to leap from registering achievement to the tendency to self deprecate.

Many of us would benefit from examining and reframing negative, non-productive thinking, which depletes our energy and diminishes our ability to give to other people.

Reframing, a technique of transforming negative thinking and beliefs to positive ones, is used by psychotherapists with diverse training, from individual to family, from cognitive to psychodynamic.

The poet, Stanley J. Kunitz (1905-2006, Poet Laureate in 2000)  expresses the process of sorting thoughts in his poem, The Layers.  (I excerpt it here but you can find the entire poem on the web and hear the voice of Mr. Kunitz on You Tube).

I have walked through many lives,

some of them my own,

and I am not who I was,

though some principle of being

abides, from which I struggle

not to stray.

 …..

In my darkest night,

when the moon was covered

and I roamed through wreckage,

a nimbus-clouded voice

directed me:

“Live in the layers,

not in the litter.”

Though I lack the art

to decipher it,

no doubt the next chapter

in my book of transformations

is already written.

I am not done with my changes.”

The great poet knew he had to sort through and live in the layers, not the litter, which I interpret as the mind’s negativity.

Conclusion: Negative thinking is a universal phenomenon which extends Beyond Diagnostic Labels. Reframing our negative thinking provides us with a more satisfying life, including more energy and the ability to give to others.

Dear Reader: I welcome your comments. (jsimon145@gmail.com)