With the fifth edition of the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) due for publication in May 2013, the classification of mental disorders and the categorization of psychiatric definitions is yet again being reviewed, revised, and reworded.

Many of us may be asking ourselves, “does changing the label we use to define ourselves change our condition in and of itself?” How does psychiatric labeling–and its perpetual evolution– affect our perception of ourselves, our minds, and our lives? Marcia Angell, much like Joan Didion in her forthcoming memoir Blue Nights, explores the interrelations between psychiatrists, the pharmaceutical industry, psychoactive drugs, and patients in her article “The Illusions of Psychiatry.”

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