Psychiatric diagnosis: some implications for mental health nursing care

This article explores some of the functions of psychiatric diagnosis and th e implications this has for the mental health nursing care that service use rs receive. It proposes that because a psychiatric diagnosis often fails to describe the individual's experience of mental distress it can be regarded as a categorization process that, while not necessarily intentionally, ser ves to maintain oppressive power relations within society. It does this by establishing and maintaining the parameters of normality and abnormality in a manner that reflects particular gender, culture and class biases. The Am erican Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Menta l Disorders will be used to illustrate some of the inherent biases in the d iagnostic process. Mental health nursing practice needs to demonstrate an a wareness of the power relations inherent in any diagnostic process and make attempts to redress these at both the individual and sociopolitical levels . If mental health nursing practice is a patient-centred partnership, as ma ny of our nursing standards suggest, then nursing's focus should be on the patient's experience rather than the psychiatric diagnosis with which the e xperience is attributed. Mental health nurses need to turn to service users to learn how best to help.