Talk:Mental illness

From Wikinfo

Illness or Disorder

"Mental illness" is one of those terms we find in daily life. But psychiatry uses the term, "mental disorder". This might seem to be a minor distinction to the newspaper reporter, indeed, it might serve reporters better to use the more alarming phrase "illness". And of course psychiatry would prefer that public use and think of "mental disorder" as illnesses because it enhances psychiatry's position in society, it lends credence to psychiatry, it enhances income for psychiatry, it puts a psychiatrist in every school and so on. But "illness" is not descriptive of what psychiatry defines and treats. Psychiatry doesn't define or work with illnesses. Psychiatry defines and works with "disorders". The reference I placed in the article talks about this difference. The Supreme Court of the USA viewed that reference, it is a fairly recent document. Could we talk about putting most of this article into an article, "Mental Disorder" ? -Terryeo 08:15, 15 July 2007 (EDT)

Unless you want to write a dictionary definition of "mental illness" as the word is commonly used, you may simply redirect. Fred 08:39, 15 July 2007 (EDT)

Wikipedia redirects from disorder to illness... Fred 08:41, 15 July 2007 (EDT)

I see that Wikipedia does redirect. I would rather avoid a controversy article unless the basic articles are in first. I would like to get the APA's statement of why they use "disorder", even though everyone says "illness". I'll put a link from this article to Mental disorder and remove most of what I added here. And put that into Mental Disorder with APA information. If this doesn't suit, please say so. Terryeo 17:59, 15 July 2007 (EDT)

Link to amicus brief

The link to the amicus brief probably belongs in a critical companion article. Fred 08:47, 15 July 2007 (EDT)