Explore popular quotes and sayings by an American psychiatrist Allen Frances.
Last updated on November 21, 2024.
Allen J. Frances is an American psychiatrist. He is currently Professor and Chairman Emeritus of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Duke University School of Medicine. He is best known for serving as chair of the American Psychiatric Association task force overseeing the development and revision of the fourth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV). Frances is the founding editor of two well-known psychiatric journals: the Journal of Personality Disorders and the Journal of Psychiatric Practice.
Psychiatric diagnosis still relies exclusively on fallible subjective judgments rather than objective biological tests.
Mental disorders don't really live 'out there' waiting to be explained. They are constructs we have made up - and often not very compelling ones.
There are no objective tests in psychiatry-no X-ray, laboratory, or exam finding that says definitively that someone does or does not have a mental disorder.