Reviewing Paul Bloom on Psychopathology

The less we understand about a disease or a symptom, the more we psychologize, and often stigmatize, it.

We tend to see mental health as “being normal”—happy, realistic, fulfilled.

In some ways, the distinction between normalcy and pathology is arbitrarily defined—as well as hard to measure.

physical pain or mental illness.

In The Coddling of the American Mind, Lukianoff and Haidt chart a dramatic decrease in young people’s resilience and ability to cope with difficult ideas and hurt feelings. The authors do not belittle these struggles, but emphasize that they are a painful consequence of the acceptance of three “Great Untruths.” These are the belief that people are

Like many other diagnoses in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) of the American Psychiatric Association, the criteria are descriptive and somewhat arbitrary, representing professional opinion and consensus. Describing disorders through checklists of symptoms can distort the complexity of clinical realities and comorbidities. From a theoret