What Is Mental Illness?

What’s a disorder, and what’s just a struggle with real life? This illustrated lecture cuts through both professional jargon and polemical hot air, to describe the intense political and intellectual struggles over what counts as a “real” disorder, and what goes into the “DSM,” the psychiatric bible. Richard J. McNally, Ph.D., Professor of Psychology and Director of Clinical Training at Harvard University, defends the careful approach of describing disorders by patterns of symptoms that can be seen, and illustrates how often the system medicalizes everyday emotional life.