Reconciling Conversational Handles With Scientific and Administrative Classifications? A Response to Jon Raskin

Appreciative of Jon Raskin’s invitation to develop alternatives to the DSM-5 diagnostic system, I share my concerns about systematization and reification that can come with any diagnostic system, through its subsequent research and administrative use. Focusing specifically on nonsevere and relational concerns (aspects of Arendt’s “human condition”), I share three alternative approaches to diagnosis. I also draw on my background as family therapist and social constructionist practitioner to focus on resourceful language use in the conversational work of therapy