DIAGNOSIS AND SERIOUS MENTAL-ILLNESS

We examine some limitations of the psychiatric diagnosis, particularly in the assessment of the seriousness of a patient's mental illness. T he bureaucratic or technocratic use of the concept 'serious mental ill ness' is contrasted with the perspective of the clinician who provides ongoing patient care. A decline in the clinical skills of psychiatris ts is likely if proposed mental health reforms regulate psychiatric pr actice according to bureaucratic and technocratic definitions of serio us mental illness rather than the realities of the clinical encounter between patient and doctor.