European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - February 22, 1986, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Saturday february 22, 1966 the stars and stripes Page 17 mental health officials 1 by Malcolm Ritter associated press debate disorders Joe who has raped several women get turned on by the coercion. Daydreams about Force arouse  keeps choosing men and jobs that end in disappointment. She sacrifices herself for people who Don t want her help and ignores people who treat her Well. Alice s life becomes hell just before menstruation sudden tears and constant tension depression irritability lethargy and overeating. Does psychiatry need to define new mental disorders to Deal with such people yes says an american psychiatric association committee that wants to add three disorders to the profession s official list of diagnoses. No say some feminist mental health professionals who object that the diagnoses could be misapplied to women and rapists. Their objections have already spurred some changes in the proposals but As the psychiatric association continues work on revising its diagnostic and statistical manual of menial disorders the debate lingers. F a feminist therapy Institute in new York City a group of 200 mental health professionals is considering Legal action Over the revisions because of How damaging some of these diagnoses Are to the health of women said Lynne Rosewater a clinical psychologist and chairwoman of the group. The Deb Tass important because the manual defines psychiatric disorders for researchers insurance companies the Federal government and courts. The controversial diagnoses embodied in the three fictional patients above Are Para Hlll coercive disorder. Like Joe the patient is preoccupied with intense urges and sexually arousing fantasies that involve forced sexual Contact. He is stimulated by the coercive nature of the actions and he either acts on them repeatedly or is markedly distressed by them.". Self defeating personality disorder. Like Marie the patient repeatedly avoids or undermines chances for pleasure gravitates toward situations that will mean suffering and refuses the help of others. The behaviour occurs in a variety of situations outside abusive relationships and not just when the person is depressed. Premenstrual dysphoric disorder. A woman s work or social activities Are seriously disrupted by symptoms such As Alices which Are present the week before menstruation begins but disappear within a few Days. The disturbance cannot be just a flare up of Erma Bombeck t his column has always been unabashedly and without apology pro Parent. That is be cause i am  is not to say the viewpoint of Youn people has no value and should not be presented. It does and it should. One of the most common problems among youth and Parent is expressing love for one another and recognizing it when they see it. When my children were growing up i was sure it was a one sided love affair tilled in their favor. In Hindsight there is belter vision. They said i love you in a million ways. I just did t look for it in the right places. What if the Only Flower on my Rosebush that they were forbidden to touch that they Tore off without a Stem and squeezed to death before it could get into water was t an act of Defiance suppose it was love. And that mess in the Kitchen when they said they depression or other disorders. All this must be confirmed by the woman s Dally notes Lor at least two menstrual cycles. Alice s problems Are nothing new to women who be heard of premenstrual syndrome. A lot of women think they have it and we think often incorrectly said or. Robert Seltzer chairman of the committee revising the psychiatric manual. Defining premenstrual dysphoric disorder in the Book will help in decreasing the false diagnosis that is Given to a lot of people now he said. By keeping a Dally record of symptoms Many women would find either that they Don t go through the changes they recall that the symptoms Are not synchronized to the menstrual Cycle or that the symptoms come from depression he said. While non professional Counselor and gynaecologists currently handle such problems gynaecologists Don t know what to do with the condition Seltzer said. If it became a matter for psychiatrists i think most of them would be quite  but not or. Teresa Bernardez. A psychiatry professor who Heads the psychiatric association s committee on women. There is already a gyn ecologic diagnosis for this she said. We Don t need any More diagnoses particularly we Don t need a psychiatric diagnosis because we have not ascertained there is any psychiatric  without knowing More about a woman s bodily and psychological changes during the menstrual Cycle psychiatrists should not construct a diagnosis with such potential to stigmatize women she said. This diagnosis would tend to validate the myth that women Are less competent More Likely to be impulsive and lose control of their impulses she said. That s Why we think caution is absolutely required and we have to wait until the scientific evidence is  opponent of the Mil defeating disorder object that it could be misapplied to abused wives incorrectly blaming them for their problem. Therapists May not understand that an abused spouse stays with the abuser not by Choice but out of fear of harm the critics say. In response Seltzer s committee changed the proposal to specify that it does not apply to an abusive relationship. We were not thinking primarily at All of instances in which women were being beaten up or abused Spitzer said. The focus is on people who Don t succeed in endeavours like jobs and marriages he said. But Renee Garfunkel head of the women s programs office of the american psychological association doubts the revised version will actually exclude abusive relationships. There is research that shows therapists tend not to know about the physical or psychological abuse of their clients she said we just Don t ask about  and for those who do ask she said there s a Good Chance the patient won t Tell  in general she said anyone who would use the proposed diagnosis is i expect More Likely to use it on Worsen and other minority  she said that under cultural norms unappreciated self sacrifice is overwhelmingly a women s  she also said making a diagnosis based on a symptom such As avoiding pleasure or chances for Relief from problems was very troublesome too because people who Are powerless or think they Are Don t recognize the possibility that things can be  Garfunkel said she saw no evidence for defining the disorder As a personality defect rather than a transient response to one s situation in life. The difference is significant because personality defects generally resist treatment while transient disorders can be helped by Short term treatment she said. Seltzer acknowledged that society might encourage the symptoms of self defeating behaviour in some women but that does t mean it s not a pathological  the proposed Para phallic coercive disorder would apply Only to a Small portion of rapists Seltzer said. The typical rapist is somebody who s antisocial and the rape is a matter of convenience and Opportunity rather than the result of preoccupation and arousal from fantasies of coercion he said. Seltzer called the proposed disorder a very specific very pathological and very rare  but Garfunkel said fantasies of coercive sex were common and she doubted the average psychiatrist could distinguish a rapist who met the proposal s criteria from other rapists. Rosewater said that making a psychiatric category Tor men who rape could in practice help defense attorneys keep any rapist out of jail. The potential for abuse is too great she said. Spitzer doubted such a defense would be attractive. You la be saying your client is even More dangerous because this is a repetitive pattern because he s done it in the past and hell do it again in the future he said. Because of objections to the three proposed diagnoses Rosewater said the feminist Institute is considering court action to Block next year s publication of the revised manual. If we Don t sue to Stop it she said we Are definitely definitely going to set up ways for people to sue for medical malpractice if those diagnoses Are used  were doing nothing and it looked like ii would have to be cleaned before it could be condemned and they got two Lousy Burnt cookies out of it. Suppose they were trying to emulate me and what i did i Don t want to think about the scores of times they put their report card in front of me and pointed proudly to an a and i replied the a is Fine. Now you ought to get to work on those other two c  i remember the times they said nothing when i punished them for borrowing my clothes cosmetics and car and ended with when Are you going to grow up was it possible they were trying to look like me trying on my life to see How it fit were they lying to me when they told me they turned Down a stupid part time Job because it did t pay enough or were Tiey sparing me the disappointment of knowing they had tailed at something How Quick was i to assume when they waved their hand and shouted my mom can drivel it was their insensitivity. Maybe it was a Public declaration of Pride and Confidence. There was never a Day went by that they did not pay me the sincerest form of flattery by Yelling at their brother the Way i would have yelled enforcing rules the Way i wrote them serving As an informant when i was t there to see it. They spent their own Money for my christmases and birthdays bragged to everyone How strict i was told me the truth when i punished them for it and kissed me every night at bedtime when i had said no to them no less than 100 times. Love is elusive. It can be Sticky As a sucker in your hair As pungent As Bubble gum in your face As awk Ward As a colourful Rock pressed in your hand or As risky As a forbidden Flower on a Rosebush with nothing left but a crushed Blossom. In 1916, i Anglin tymm syn Luli