Introduction
Beauty standards, particularly, in relation to women, have been incredibly fluid, changing from era to era and from culture to culture. Though often clashing in their perceptions of an image of an ideal woman, the specified interpretations of the female beauty lead to the detriment of female health, as the 2003 book by Rebecca Popenoe, Feeding Desire, demonstrates. By disclosing the underlying combination of sexualization and objectification of female appearance in determining beauty standards, specifically, in the Moor culture, Popenoe demonstrates the absurdity of appearance standards and insists on the importance of cultivating the concept of healthy bodies and minds in women, specifically, those of the Moor descent.
Summary
The book establishes from the very start that the Moor’s perception of female beauty is significantly different from those of Western cultures. While the latter encourage women to become slimmer, which often leads to increased social pressure and mental health issues such as anorexia, the Moors promote the opposite: “Beauty in Moors consists of enormous embonpoint” (Popelou 35). In this regard, a notable overlap between Moor cultural values and the Western world can be observed. As a result, obesity affects a significant number of Moor women. Thus, the current standards of beauty within the specified cultural context need to be challenged toward a healthier outlook on women’s bodies.
Personal Response
The issue of the male gaze, as well as male objectification and dehumanization of women resonates with me on multiple levels. Therefore, I strongly believe that the problem with the Moor’s representation of women s depicted by Popenoe shares a range of characteristics with the Western perception of female appearance. Namely, the fixation on the overly sexualized portrayal of the specified population as the means of catering to the male gaze represents the core of the problem: “They had learned to employ a plant for fattening animals” (Popelou 36). In turn, by introducing balanced approach to the concept of women’s appearance and focusing on how it represents their health status rather than how it complies with men’s sexual demands, one will be able to resolve the issue.
Strengths and Weaknesses
The attempt at revisiting and challenging both Western and Moor ideas of women’s appearance clearly is the core strength and the main distinguishing feature of Popelou’s book. The author focuses on the experiences of specific women representing the Moro community. Popelou makes a reasonable and valid statement regarding the absurdity of the Western beauty standards, which also originate from men’s fetishization of women’s bodies and the current obsession with excessive thinness (Popelou 21). Therefore, the balanced perspective and the effort to communicate the adverse influence that the described trends have on women in both culture, as well as worldwide, should be regarded as the main advantages of the book.
At the same time, some of the more obvious weaknesses observed in Popelou’s narration are not to be discounted, either. For instance, one should not ignore the fact that the scope of the book is quite narrow, embracing only two cultures, namely, those of the moors ad the Western world. Furthermore, the fact that the narrator examines Western culture as a monolith as opposed to an amalgamation of multiple cultural influences also represents a certain problem. Although the multiple influences that contribute to the current perception do eventually lead to the same hypersexualization of women’ bodies and the resulting failure to construct a healthy image of a female body, the multitude of cultures interwoven into the Western one should have been acknowledged.
Conclusion
With its perspective incorporating the notions of sexualization and objectification of Moor women, as well as women in general, Popenoe’s book introduces its female readers, as well as the world at large, to the concept of a health-based perspective on women’s appearance. The described approach resonates with its readers, especially female ones, who have been facing the constraints of beauty standards and gender expectations imposed onto them due to their sexed bodies. Therefore, Popenoe’s book has encouraged a range of peculiar ideas regarding the much needed change in the perception of beauty standards and women’s appearance, in general.
Works Cited
Popenoe, Rebecca. Feeding Desire. Taylor & Francis, 2003.
The 5th Version Of Diagnostic & Statistical Manual Of Mental Disorders
Introduction
The diagnosis of mental disorders is based on the principles of good clinical practice, including objectivity and reliability of the diagnostic examination, which ensures comparability and reproducibility of diagnostic decisions by psychiatrists with different levels of professional training and work in different countries. Using classifications and guidelines as diagnostic standards reflects the professional community’s desire to identify patients’ disorders by clinical reality while minimizing the influence of subjective factors (Zimmermann et al., 2019). Overcoming subjectivity is particularly important in psychiatry, where methodologies based on subjective assessment are widespread.
In addition to standardization, diagnostic guidelines and classifications are aimed at controlling the epidemic situation, possible threats to public health, and assessment of disease severity, which allows the same disease to be assessed in different countries on different continents. The following directions are identifying risk groups among the population and vulnerability to certain diseases and the justification of providing free or partially paid medical care to the population at the state level. Equally important functions are to provide a basis for developing treatment standards, creating protocols and clinical guidelines and use for scientific purposes, and conducting research to find more effective treatments and clinical trials.
Historically, the U.S. uses the DSM, which is developed, updated, and implemented by the American Psychiatric Association (APA). The European countries use the ICD, whose adoption and updating is the prerogative of the World Health Organization (WHO). It should be noted that since 1982, the improvement and development of these two classification systems have been coordinated (Horwitz, 2021). Each of the classifications preserves the traditions of the national schools of psychiatry.
History of DSM
The history of the DSM is very interesting, as there have been several editions, and they have progressed and become more accurate. In 1952, the American Psychiatric Association published the DSM-I (Horwitz, 2021). This catalog of mental disorders had a theoretical basis in the views of the authoritative psychiatrist Adolph Meyer (Gonçalves et al., 2018). Meyer’s main idea, which influenced the DSM-I, had to do with a certain view of symptoms, treated not as external manifestations of some disturbance in the body’s biology but as a complex reaction to life circumstances. Nevertheless, the DSM-I was not subordinated to the influence of psychoanalysis. DSM-II is the successor of DSM-I as far as continuing the psychodynamic tradition is concerned. Indeed, the controversial term “neurosis” is still used in the new classification version (Leggatt, 2022). The word’s meaning, which predates psychoanalysis, has often changed and gradually become elusive to unequivocal understanding. At the same time, DSM-II takes a step away from the theoretical framework considered very important when DSM-I was drafted.
The drafters of DSM-III wanted to create an atheoretical document, a guide for practitioners who do not have time to delve into discussions about the etiology of diseases. Therein lies the revolutionary nature of the DSM-III. However, etiology was supposed to be the main validator for diagnosis. DSM-III has two validators: disease course and response to treatment. By early 2000, there was a need for a paradigm shift and a renewal of diagnostic philosophy (Le Moigne, 2018). However, it appears that by the time DSM-5 was published, the new paradigm had not yet matured. Science had not yet developed descriptions of the neurobiological factors underlying mental illness that could be used as criteria for classifying illnesses. As a result, the DSM-5 retained a categorical approach, although minor inclusions of a dimensional approach were allowed to organize the material in the chapters.
Is the DSM-5 the “Bible of Psychiatry”?
The DSM-5 cannot be regarded as the Bible but as a dictionary for psychiatrists. All indicators and symptoms are too individualized. Its main purpose is to provide verifiable, quantifiable criteria and a common language for physicians to communicate with patients and, perhaps most importantly, for physicians to communicate with insurance companies. It gives pharmaceutical firms a set of goals for developing their drugs, but none of this qualifies it as the Bible. It is intended to be revised as scientific understanding evolves. The current nomenclatural classifications are agnostic about etiology, although that should change as researchers better understand biological pathogenesis. Diagnoses in the DSM are based on consensus about groups of clinical symptoms without objective laboratory measurements.
This extremely important book does not give instructions but informs practice. It is more than just a guide for those conducting research. It is a specific vocabulary and collection of scales by which research on schizoaffective disorder results can be combined because they both denote the same thing and are evaluated similarly. Each of the editions has been reliable in that it has established that clinicians use the same terms in the same way, but the weakness has always been a lack of validity. The various updates published by the American Psychiatric Association that made up the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders versions have traditionally been subject to criticism and disagreement (Tolentino & Schmidt, 2018). Although each new publication has attempted to achieve a higher index of consensus among experts, the truth is that the existence of a sector of the professional psychology and psychiatry community cannot be denied.
The DSM requires a minimum number of criteria to be met (half plus one) but does not specify any as necessarily binding. More specifically, a great deal of correspondence has been found between schizotypal personality disorder and schizophrenia; paranoid personality disorder and delusional disorder; personality disorder and mood disorders, and obsessive-compulsive personality disorder and obsessive-compulsive disorder (Widiger & Crego, 2018). It is very difficult to distinguish between a continuum of marked personality traits (normality) and extreme and pathological personality traits (personality disorder). Even if one specifies that there must be a significant functional deterioration of personal and social personality indicators, as well as a manifestation of a stable psychological and behavioral repertoire over time of an inflexible and maladaptive nature, it is difficult and difficult to determine which population profiles fall into the first category or the second. In addition, concerning the consistency between the descriptions given for each personality disorder diagnosis, they do not maintain sufficient consistency with the features observed in clinical patients at the consultation and with overlapping clinical pictures that are overly broad.
- Diagnoses and their Implications for Culture-based Mental Illnesses from the DSM-5. Based on a review of the current neuroscience evidence base with clinical utility in mind, the DSM-5 highlights new disorders, chief among them: pathological hoarding, disruptive mood dysregulation disorder (DMDD); compulsive overeating; premenstrual dysphoric disorder; restless legs syndrome; and conduct disorder due to disruption of the rapid sleep phase (Sharp & Wall, 2021). It should be emphasized that the new disorders, on the one hand, improve diagnosis and, on the other, avoid the stigmatizing effect of psychiatric diagnosis (Miller et al., 2018). In the case of the growing population of bipolar disorders in childhood, there is an opportunity for clinicians in a particular clinical setting to move children with symptoms of persistent irritability and social disorder beyond bipolar disorders by including them in the DMDD group. The changes in the DSM-5 terms are aimed primarily at destigmatizing psychiatric diagnoses and at “mitigating” the psychological consequences that arise for patients and their environment after such diagnoses as “schizophrenia,” “mental retardation,” and “dementia.” The term “mental retardation” has been eliminated from the DSM-5 and replaced with “intellectual developmental disorder” (Amoretti & Lalumera, 2019). The term “dementia” has been replaced by “neurocognitive disorder,” and the term “substance use disorders and addiction” is used instead of “substance abuse” and “substance dependence. Since all sections of the DSM-5 transformed processing, describing the updated diagnostic criteria is lengthy. This article presents the changes in the diagnostic criteria for schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and depressive disorder that are most commonly used in scientific developments and attract practitioners’ attention.
- Cultural Perceptions in DSM-5. The fifth version of the Diagnostic and Statistical Handbook of Mental Disorders integrates enhanced cultural awareness throughout the handbook to better care and diagnosis for persons of different ethnicities. DSM-5 is more than a catalog of culture-bound disorders as it upgrades criteria to recognize cross-cultural differences in presentation (Shorter, 2021). It also provides more structured information concerning cultural principles of distress. DSM-5 comprises a clinical interviewing tool to enhance thorough, person-centered analyses.
Symptoms manifest or are explained differently in different societies and cultures. As a result, doctors must be aware of crucial contextual information derived from the patient’s culture, ethnicity, or religion. Uncontrollable sobbing and migraines, for example, are signs of panic attacks in certain cultures, although trouble breathing could be the predominant symptom in others (DeSilva et al., 2018). Understanding such variances can assist professionals in more correctly diagnosing and treating issues.
The new guidebook discusses cultural distress ideas, including how various cultures explain symptoms. Cultural symptoms and explanations are used to characterize them. These ideas help physicians understand how individuals in varying cultures think about and discuss psychological issues (Wu, 2021). The cultural conceptualization interview schedule will assist physicians in determining cultural elements that influence patients’ perceptions of their illnesses and treatment alternatives. It contains inquiries regarding the patients’ cultural or ethnic heritage. Individuals can use the interview to characterize their suffering in their terms and then link it to how other parties that may not belong to their cultural background see their difficulties.
The motivations of those researching DSM-5 have frequently been questioned. They have already been accused of having a financial conflict of interest since they have drug industry affiliations and because numerous DSM-5 modifications would increase Pharma revenues by contributing to the already existing social overdose of recklessly administered psychiatric drugs (Shorter, 2021). However, the individuals working on DSM-5 and the claim are both unjust and false. They did make some highly terrible mistakes, but they did it with good intentions, not to aid the pharma industry.
The motivations of those embarking on DSM-5 have frequently been called into doubt. They have been claimed to have a financial conflict of interest since they have links to pharmaceutical companies and because many of the DSM-5 modifications would increase Pharma revenues by adding to the already existing social overdose of recklessly administered psychiatric drugs. Nevertheless, because of the folks working on DSM-5, the claim is both unjust and false. They have made terrible mistakes but did so with good intentions, not to aid the pharma industry.
Conclusion
Physicians’ perspectives on patients’ suffering should be incorporated into case compositions. Before reaching a diagnosis, a thorough examination of a person’s pathos experience must be performed. All DSM-5 modifications, except autism, relax diagnosis and risk to transform the existing diagnostic inflation into medical hyperinflation. Past DSM experience tells that if something in the diagnostic methodology can be abused and turned into a craze, it will be. Many individuals with natural grieving, attention deficits, and addictive behaviors will be incorrectly labeled as psychiatrically unwell and treated inappropriately shortly. As a result, persons with real mental issues that can be accurately identified and efficiently treated are already being taken advantage of. DSM-5 will exacerbate this by deflecting attention and precious resources aside from the genuinely sick and toward those with everyday issues that will suffer from being misidentified as mentally ill. Taking care of the mentally ill is a commendable and valuable occupation if there are boundaries that everyone follows.
References
Amoretti, M. C., & Lalumera, E. (2019). A potential tension in DSM-5: The general definition of mental disorder versus some specific diagnostic criteria. In The Journal of Medicine and Philosophy: A Forum for Bioethics and Philosophy of Medicine (Vol. 44, No. 1, pp. 85-108). US: Oxford University Press. Web.
DeSilva, R., Aggarwal, N. K., & Lewis-Fernández, R. (2018). The DSM-5 Cultural Formulation Interview: bridging barriers toward a clinically integrated cultural assessment in psychiatry. Psychiatric Annals, 48(3), 154-159. Web.
Gonçalves, A. M. N., Dantas, C. D. R., Banzato, C. E., & Oda, A. M. G. R. (2018). A historical account of schizophrenia proneness categories from DSM-I to DSM-5 (1952-2013). Revista Latinoamericana de Psicopatologia Fundamental, 21, 798-828. Web.
Horwitz, A. V. (2021). DSM: a history of psychiatry’s bible. JHU Press.
Le Moigne, J. (2018). Distributed spacecraft missions (DSM) technology development at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. In IGARSS 2018-2018 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium (pp. 293-296). IEEE. Web.
Leggatt, M. (2022). DSM: A History of Psychiatry’s Bible by Allan V. Horwitz. Health and History, 24(1), 144-148. Web.
Miller, J. D., Lamkin, J., Maples-Keller, J. L., Sleep, C. E., & Lynam, D. R. (2018). A test of the empirical profile and coherence of the DSM–5 psychopathy specifier. Psychological assessment, 30(7), 870. Web.
Sharp, C., & Wall, K. (2021). DSM-5 level of personality functioning: Refocusing personality disorder on what it means to be human. Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, 17, 313-337. Web.
Shorter, E. (2021). The rise and fall of the age of psychopharmacology. Oxford University Press.
Tolentino, J. C., & Schmidt, S. L. (2018). DSM-5 criteria and depression severity: implications for clinical practice. Frontiers in psychiatry, 9, 450. Web.
Widiger, T. A., & Crego, C. (2018). Psychopathy and DSM-5 psychopathology.
Wu, H. (2021). Mad by the millions: mental disorders and the early years of the World Health Organization. MIT Press.
Zimmermann, J., Kerber, A., Rek, K., Hopwood, C. J., & Krueger, R. F. (2019). A brief but comprehensive review of research on the alternative DSM-5 model for personality disorders. Current psychiatry reports, 21(9), 1-19. Web.
Science Fiction In Qaqish’s “Before Arrival” Film
Science fiction is a popular genre in many art forms that connects humans’ desire for knowledge with artists’ imagination of future society. Understanding the common tropes, iconography, and themes allows one to gain an understanding of what elements contribute to the unique experience science fiction provides. The appeal of such a pattern can be seen in “Before Arrival” by Joseph Qaqish. In this paper, the elements of science fiction that are displayed in the short scene will be analyzed.
The overall theme of this short is the potential of technology that is yet to be understood. A strange device of unknown nature is being studied by scientists through a complex, futuristic monitoring framework, while characters appear hesitant to approach it directly, implying a potential danger it presents (Qaqish, 2022). Viewers instantly recognize the genre through the manner of the scene’s narration of the story, which is focused on study. The core problem is connected to research, as it is apparent that there is no full comprehension of the event characters are observing.
The tropes support this direction, as the movie depicts researchers working on a technological marvel which is yet to be fully understood. Telotte (2009) explains that this genre often shows people “explaining in a rational manner” something that can be perceived as supernatural without this context (p. 14). The desire to understand the unexplored is another trope that is shown in this video. This trope aligns with the hesitation that characters express in their actions as they strive to remove the boundaries of what is known (Telotte, 2009). People desire to make a breakthrough and are willing to take risks for such an achievement.
The characters of this movie correlate with the common science fiction tropes. Two scientists are working on a project that concerns them for an undisclosed reason. Their emotions convey irritation and distress over the data they perceive on monitors. A glowing device that is apparently being studied is located just nearby, yet its comprehension obviously poses a challenge for the characters. The science fiction iconography in this short is displayed via data on the monitors, as well as through a device that is being studied by characters (Qaqish, 2022). This imagery is vital for conducting the nature of the setting in the video. Watson (2003) states that “futuristic technologies” are an essential part of science fiction (p. 194).
The style of this short also aligns with common tropes for this genre, as it depicts researchers working on a critical project. As characters sit in a dimly lit room, the attention of the audience is inevitably drawn toward the monitors (Qaqish, 2022). The author illustrates a science fiction narrative through an exposition that highlights a highly stressful environment. The movie leaves many details up for viewers’ imagination, allowing the producer to show enigmatic information that can not be deciphered by viewers without description.
In conclusion, this short contains many elements that tie it with the science fiction genre through both characters’ roles, their actions, emotions, and the futuristic devices they use and study. The way how characters interact with their environment is paramount for the audience’s involvement in the setting that is otherwise unknown and alien in its presentation. While technology is a vital part of this movie, the way people research it is also indicative of common tropes of this genre.
References
Qaqish, J. (2022). Before Arrival [Video]. Google Drive. Web.
Telotte, J. P. (2009). Science fiction film. Cambridge University Press.
Watson, P. (2003). Approaches to film genre – taxonomy/genericity/metaphor. In J. Nelmes (Ed.), An introduction to film studies (pp. 189-208). Taylor & Francis Group.