PSYCHIATRISTS are to give official recognition to dozens of new mental disorders, including a condition nicknamed “Mary Whitehouse syndrome” – the thrill of being appalled by pornography and other obscenities. Absexuality appears to have been inspired by the zeal of Whitehouse, the campaigner who railed against smut on television.
The condition is one of many mood disorders and personality traits that are likely to be added to the next edition of Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, the psychiatrists’ bible.
The disorders, which also include hypersexuality – the desire for multiple partners, perhaps characterised by the golfer Tiger Woods – reflect changing social patterns. Critics believe, however, that their classification as psychiatric problems may lead them to be exploited for profit by drug companies.
Other new conditions include sluggish cognitive tempo disorder, which some would regard as simple laziness, and relational disorder, in which two people – often a separating couple – struggle to get on. People who whinge constantly may be suffering negativistic personality disorder. Intermittent explosive disorder – otherwise known as adult tantrums – is also defined for the first time.
The conditions are named in a draft version of the manual, a key reference book for psychiatrists for more than 50 years. Their inclusion is under discussion by an international panel. Most are expected to be included in the final edition when it is published in 2013.
Although there is no evidence that Whitehouse got a kick out of salacious viewing, there is no disputing her passion for attacking broadcasters if she felt their standards had slipped. She was so outraged when Kenneth Tynan said “f***” in a live television debate in 1965 that she wrote to the Queen suggesting the theatre critic should have his bottom spanked.
Sex features prominently in the draft of the fifth edition of the manual. According to the document, published last week, the absence of a sex drive can no longer be viewed as a normal state. It is defined as sexual arousal disorder.
Darrel Regier, research director of the American Psychiatric Association and a member of the taskforce working on the manual, said: “One of the reasons for doing this is that we are concerned about establishing better thresholds of diagnosis for people with a genuine disorder.” He denied that revisions were influenced by new developments by drugs companies.
Richard Bentall, professor of clinical psychology at Bangor University, in north Wales, said: “Most of these diagnoses are meaningless and have no basis in science. But the more disorders there are, the more private business psychiatrists get.”
Additional reporting: Anna Parkin