September 23, 2025 • 20 mins
What happens when the manual for diagnosing mental illness stops being a guide for doctors… and starts shaping childhood itself?
In this episode of Think First, we trace how the DSM widened the map — turning sadness into depression, tantrums into mood disorders, and shyness into social anxiety — and then follow Abigail Shrier’s Bad Therapy into the classrooms, clinics, and living rooms where those labels became culture.
From stomachaches that trigger suicide screenings… to classrooms run like Oprah tapings… to kids trading diagnoses like Pokémon cards… we explore how therapy shifted from treatment to identity.
This isn’t medical school. It’s cultural storytelling with a sharp edge. Because when therapy becomes the air kids breathe, fragility stops being the problem — and starts being the product.
Stay sharp. Stay skeptical. #SpotTheGaslight
Read and reflect at Gaslight360.com/clarity
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
This is Think First, where we don't follow the script
.
We question it Because in aworld full of poetic truths and
professional gaslighting,someone's got to say the quiet
part out loud.
Picture this You're sitting ina doctor's office in New York
City.
The psychiatrist listens, takesnotes, flips through a very
(00:26):
thick book and finally says youmeet the criteria, you have a
mental disorder.
Now fast forward.
You take a flight across theAtlantic land in London and walk
into another office.
Same story, same struggles,same you.
The doctor listens, nods,checks their book and says
(00:48):
you're fine, you don't have adisorder at all.
Wait what?
Same person, same symptoms, twocompletely different answers.
That's not a joke.
That's what happens becausepsychiatry has two competing
rule books the DSM-5 in Americaand the ICD-11 almost everywhere
else.
And here's the unsettling part.
(01:09):
These aren't little differences, like one spelling color and
the other spelling color.
We're talking about one booksaying you're mentally ill and
the other saying you're not.
So the question becomes ifsanity itself depends on your
zip code, how much of this isscience and how much of it is
politics, insurance and plainold compromise?
(01:31):
That's where we're headed today.
We're opening the manuals thatclaim to define reality and
asking if we've been gaslit intotrusting books that change
their definitions as often as apolitician changes campaign
promises.
Let's roll back the clock.
The DSM, that's, the Diagnosticand Statistical Manual of Mental
(01:53):
Disorders, was born in 1952.
The first edition was a slimpaperback 130 pages, about a
hundred disorders.
More pamphlet than Bible.
Fast forward 70 years.
The DSM-5 is now a doorstopOver 900 pages.
It covers hundreds ofconditions with pages of
(02:16):
checklists.
It's not just for psychiatrists.
Insurance companies use it todecide what they'll pay for
Lawyers.
Use it in court.
Schools use it for special edeligibility.
Even criminal cases lean on itto decide insanity defenses.
In short, if you live inAmerica, the DSM doesn't just
(02:37):
diagnose you, it defines yourreality inside the system.
Meanwhile, outside the US, theWorld Health Organization runs
the ICD, the InternationalClassification of Diseases.
It's the official standard inmost countries.
It covers everything frombroken legs to brain tumors and,
(02:58):
yes, it has a chapter on mentalhealth.
So here's the split.
Dsm runs America, icd runs theworld.
And here's the kicker theydon't always agree, sometimes
they overlap, sometimes theycontradict, and when they do,
you realize these books aren'tstone tablets from Mount Sinai.
(03:19):
They're written by committees,revised by votes and shaped by
whoever's at the table.
Want proof?
In 1968, the DSM-II listedhomosexuality as a mental
disorder.
Entire careers were built ontreating it.
By 1973, after activism,protests and a historic vote
(03:41):
inside the APA, it was removed.
Did brain scans suddenlydiscover something new?
Nope, the science didn't changeovernight.
The politics did, and that'sthe through line.
These manuals don't just reflectscience.
They reflect the compromises oftheir time, which brings us to
(04:01):
one of the biggest compromisesof all how the DSM and ICD
handle gender identity.
The DSM-5, released in 2013,introduced a new category Gender
dysphoria.
Notice the word choice.
The old label was genderidentity disorder.
(04:22):
That made the identity itselfsound like the illness.
The new label, gender dysphoria, says it's not the identity
that's disordered, it's thedistress that can come with it.
That change was designed toreduce stigma.
You're not sick for being trans, but if you're in deep pain
because your identity and yourbody don't align, that's what's
(04:44):
treated.
If you're in deep pain becauseyour identity and your body
don't align, that's what'streated.
Now, and here's the practicalside.
The DSM couldn't just deletethe category Because in the US,
if there's no diagnosis, there'sno insurance coverage.
Therapy, hormones, surgery noneof it gets reimbursed unless
(05:05):
there's a code.
So gender dysphoria became thecompromise Keep the code for
billing, soften the language forculture.
Meanwhile, the ICD-11, rolledout globally starting in 2022,
took a different path.
It created a category calledgender incongruence but moved it
out of the mental healthchapter entirely.
Instead, it put it underconditions related to sexual
(05:29):
health.
The signal was clear beingtransgender isn't a psychiatric
illness, but healthcare systemsstill need a code to authorize
treatment.
So the ICD built one withoutcalling it.
Mental Activists cheered.
Who declared victory fordepathologization.
Critics argued it was politicsdressed up as medicine, and the
(05:51):
contradiction was complete.
In America's DSM, it's still amental health diagnosis.
In the WHO's ICD, it's not Sameperson, same story.
Walk into an office in New Yorkyou have a psychiatric
condition.
Walk into an office in Parisyou don't.
(06:12):
And both manuals will insistthey're evidence-based,
objective and scientific.
If that doesn't feel likegaslighting being told both
answers are the truth at thesame time, I don't know what
does so.
Why do these manuals keepchanging?
Why is one disorder here todaygone tomorrow?
Why does crazy look one way inthe DSM and another way in the
(06:34):
ICD?
The answer is money, pressureand politics.
Let's start with money InAmerica.
If you don't have a code fromthe DSM you don't have insurance
coverage.
Period, no diagnosis, notherapy.
No diagnosis, no meds.
No diagnosis, no surgery.
(06:57):
Insurance company's computer iscolder than a banker in January
.
If it can't find the code, itwon't cut the check.
That's why gender dysphoriastayed in the DSM.
If it vanished, patients wouldbe on their own financially.
(07:19):
So the manual did a littletwo-step.
Okay, it's not your identity,that's the disorder, it's your
distress.
And just like that, the codesurvives, the bills get paid and
the insurance system keepshumming.
Science may drive the car, butinsurance is holding the
steering wheel.
Now let's add pressure Activism.
Think back to the 1970s.
(07:41):
Homosexuality was in the DSM.
Activists stormed APA meetings,staged sit-ins, even had a gay
psychiatrist testify from behinda mask.
By 1973, homosexuality wasvoted out.
And it wasn't becausescientists discovered a brand
new chromosome or cracked abrain scan mystery.
It was because the culturalwinds had shifted and the APA
(08:05):
bent with them.
That moment set a precedent.
If activism can rewrite oneentry, why not another?
Now, every hot-button diagnosiscarries the same undertone
who's lobbying the loudest?
And finally, politics.
The ICD isn't just a medicalbook, it's run by the World
(08:28):
Health Organization, which isalso a diplomatic body.
When WHO moved genderincongruence out of the mental
disorders section.
It was partly about aligningwith UN human rights language.
To some that was progress, toothers it was ideology with a
lab coat on.
So there you have it.
(08:50):
The DSM bends toward insurance,the ICD bends toward global
politics.
Both bend when the pressure'shigh enough.
And yet every time the publicis told this is objective, this
is settled science.
That's not objectivity, that'stheater, and we're the audience
being told not to notice thestagehands moving the scenery.
(09:13):
So are there competitors?
Yes, but they're more likeunderstudies who never get to
perform.
First up.
Rdoc Research, domain CriteriaBorn at the National Institute
of Mental Health.
The dream.
Forget categories, go straightto brain circuits and genes.
If the prefrontal cortex ismisfiring, treat that Sounds
(09:38):
brilliant.
Problem is you can't handsomeone a prescription labeled
for dysfunction in yourcorticostriatal pathways, and
you definitely can't bill BlueCross for it.
So RDOC stays in the lab,admired but impractical.
Then there's HITOP, thehierarchical taxonomy of
(09:59):
psychopathology.
Think of it like a giant map ofsymptoms.
Instead of neat boxes likedepression or anxiety, hitop
shows you clusters and overlaps,more data-driven, less
arbitrary.
But try explaining that to ateenager who just wants to know
if they're depressed.
Good news you're in the 67thpercentile of the internalizing
(10:20):
spectrum.
That doesn't exactly roll offthe tongue.
And then there's PDM-2, thepsychodynamic diagnostic manual.
This one comes frompsychoanalytic circles, less
about checklists, more about thestory of your personality, your
relationships, your inner world.
(10:40):
It's deep, it's thoughtful, butgood luck convincing an
insurance company to pay forexistential unease rooted in
early attachment.
So we're left with this.
The challengers may be smarter,but the incumbents are
entrenched Because, at the endof the day, only DSM and ICD can
feed the insurance computersand the government policies, and
(11:04):
that's what keeps them in power.
But just imagine what if someonebuilt a manual with no strings
attached.
It would look very different.
It would be dimensional, notyes or no boxes but scales
showing where you land.
It would be biological,grounded in brain science,
genetics and outcomes.
It would be transparent, honestabout what we know and what we
(11:28):
don't and, most importantly, itwould be independent, not shaped
by insurance lobbyists,activists or UN policy language.
Call it the physician's deskreference of the mind, an atlas,
not a compromise.
And here's the kicker thescience is already there.
(11:50):
We've got decades of imaging,data sets and longitudinal
studies.
What's missing isn't knowledge,it's courage, the courage to
publish something that can't begamed by billing codes or
rewritten by politics.
So what do we do with all this?
We've seen how the DSM and ICDbecame the rulebooks of
(12:12):
psychiatry.
We've seen how they disagree onone of the most sensitive
cultural issues of our time.
We've seen how insuranceactivism and politics quietly
twist the language.
And we've seen how smartermodels exist but never get their
shot.
And here's the bigger truthwhen institutions tell us their
(12:34):
definitions are final, but thosedefinitions change with every
new addition, that's not clarity, that's choreography.
Gaslighting thrives in thatspace is pulling a disappearing
act when the manual says onething in America, another in
(12:56):
Europe and both insist theirobjective.
When the definitions shift, butthe authority never blinks,
that isn't just confusing,that's manipulation in slow
motion.
So here's the first takeawaythe smartest people aren't the
loudest.
They're the ones asking theright questions, like if two
(13:18):
official manuals can't agree onwho's sick and who's not, how
settled can the science reallybe?
And here's the new zinger forthis episode.
Maybe the real question isn'twho gets to define crazy, maybe
it's.
Why do we keep letting themchange the answer without ever
admitting they did?
Before we dive back in, a quickword about the project.
(13:46):
That's bigger than this podcast.
I wrote a book.
It's called Distorted howgaslighting and poetic truth
bend our perception of reality,and it's out in every format you
actually use how Gaslightingand Poetic Truth Bend Our
Perception of Reality, and it'sout in every format you actually
use Paperback, kindle, appleBooks, amazon and Barnes Noble.
If you want the digital version, you can pre-order right now
for just $9.99.
(14:08):
That's cheaper than a fancycoffee and far less likely to
give you anxiety.
Here's the pitch.
If this podcast helps you spotthe gaslights of the day.
Distorted is the field manual.
It's the frameworks, thestories, the receipts all in one
place, the kind of book you canhand to your uncle, your
(14:30):
professor or that guy onFacebook who thinks TikTok
comments are peer-reviewedresearch.
And if you do grab a copy,here's my one ask leave a review
.
It's the simplest way to makesure the truth gets surfaced
instead of buried under thealgorithm's most dramatic trauma
wins policy.
So head to Amazon, barnes Nobleor Apple Books, pre-order the
(14:53):
Kindle version for $9.99 or getthe paperback if you're old
school Either way.
Thank you All.
Right back to the show.
So here's where we left off.
The DSM widened the borders.
Grief became depression,tantrums became mood disorders,
(15:17):
shyness became social anxiety.
And once those categories wereofficial, schools, clinics and
insurers had every reason totreat them as real estate to be
developed.
But you don't need to flipthrough a manual to see its
fingerprints.
Just walk into a classroom, sitin a pediatric waiting room or
overhear a dinner table wherediscipline has been outsourced
(15:38):
to therapy culture.
That's where Abigail Schreierpicks up the story in her book
Bad Therapy.
Not the politics of psychiatry,but the lived reality of kids
raised in a therapeutic age.
Kids who now know theiracronyms before their locker
combos.
Kids fluent in feelings butless fluent in life.
And here's the big questionSchreier asks and we should too.
(16:01):
If the cure is everywhere, whyaren't the kids getting better?
So here's where we left off.
The DSM widened the map.
What used to be sadness becamedepression, what used to be a
kid with a short fuse becamemood disorder.
What used to be shy becamesocial anxiety.
(16:24):
And once those categories wereofficial, the whole system had a
reason to treat them as realestate.
Clinics, schools, insuranceeveryone got their cut.
But here's the thing you don'tneed to read the DSM to see its
fingerprints.
You just need to walk into aclassroom, sit in a waiting room
or overhear a dinner tablewhere mom and dad are
(16:46):
negotiating bedtime like they'reat the UN.
That's where Abigail Schreierpicks up in bad Therapy, not the
manual, the fallout, howtherapy stopped being a
treatment and started becomingthe water kids swim in.
So let's ask what happens whentherapy stops being the
exception and becomes theculture.
(17:08):
A boy goes in for a stomachache,out goes the parent, in comes
the nurse.
Have you thought about killingyourself?
The kid had been thinking aboutbaseball stats.
Now he's wondering if he missedthe homework assignment about
planning his own funeral.
This is how safety cultureworks.
Assume everyone's at risk andyou end up planting ideas that
(17:29):
weren't there.
It's like asking every12-year-old if they've tried
heroin, just in case.
Next stop.
School Math waits, but firstfeelings.
Kids sit in a circle sharingtheir trauma.
One talks about a fight at home, another about a bad dream.
The quiet kid says I'm fine,wrong answer Pretty soon.
(17:56):
The lesson is clear the biggeryour pain, the bigger the
spotlight.
Classroom becomes talk show,vulnerability becomes
performance.
And math.
Math never happens At recess.
Kids used to trade Pokemon cards.
Now they trade acronyms.
Collect them all.
A label isn't just anexplanation anymore, it's a
brand.
Put it in your bio.
Put it on TikTok, get bonuspoints if your diagnosis comes
(18:19):
with meds.
It's identity as diagnosis andyou wonder why kids aren't
lining up to grow out of it.
Meanwhile, at home, disciplinegets rebranded as gentle
parenting, which sounds nice,until you realize it's just
negotiation theater.
Sweetie, would you like tobrush your teeth?
No, okay, how about if I readyou a book while you consider
(18:41):
brushing your teeth?
Authority isn't cruelty,authority is structure.
But now we've got parentsoutsourcing backbone to
therapists.
Kids don't feel empowered, theyfeel lost.
We used to call it parenting,now it's collaborative hostage
negotiation.
And online Trauma is trending.
(19:03):
The more tragic the story, thebigger the views.
Not war trauma my mom forgotsoccer practice trauma.
That's poetic truth at work.
It feels noble, it feelsdramatic, it feels true even if
it isn't.
And once you buy into that,every memory is clay.
Here's the gaslight we'remaking kids safer.
(19:28):
Look around Kids are moreanxious, more medicated, more
fragile than ever.
That's not safer, that's theopposite.
And here's the poetic truth.
Everyone has trauma.
It sounds comforting, it soundsunifying, but it's nonsense.
If trauma means everything,then it means nothing.
(19:49):
Therapy works when it's theexception, but when therapy
becomes the culture, kids don'tbuild muscles, they build
identities around fragility.
It's like spotting someone atthe gym and never letting them
lift the weight.
Yes, they're safe, but they'realso weak forever.
The DSM widened the map.
It turned ordinary sadness andstress into diagnosable
(20:12):
conditions and in doing so, gaveinstitutions a playbook for
expanding their reach.
Bad therapy shows what happenednext.
That manual didn't just sit ona shelf.
It trickled into classrooms,living rooms, tiktok feeds and
pediatric waiting rooms.
What was once a set ofcategories became a culture.
That's the bigger story.
(20:32):
Here.
A profession lowered the barand culture built an entire
childhood around it, whichleaves us with kids fluent in
fragility, parents fluent intherapy speak and institutions
fluent in billing codes.
Bad therapy didn't raisestronger kids.
It just raised better patients.
And that's the gaslight.
(20:52):
That all this is for the kids.
The reality it's for the system, and today we went there.
I'm Jim Detchen and you don'tneed all the answers, but you
should question the ones you'rehanded.
Until next time, stay skeptical, stay curious and always think
(21:13):
first, want more.
The full six-step framework weuse is at Gaslight360.com.
You can also dive into thedeeper story, the bio, the
podcast and the mission atJimDetchincom.
And if you like this one, tagit, save it, share it.
This is Think First, where we don't follow the script
.
We question it Because in aworld full of poetic truths and
professional gaslighting,someone's got to say the quiet
part out loud.
Picture this You're sitting ina doctor's office in New York
City.
The psychiatrist listens, takesnotes, flips through a very
(00:26):
thick book and finally says youmeet the criteria, you have a
mental disorder.
Now fast forward.
You take a flight across theAtlantic land in London and walk
into another office.
Same story, same struggles,same you.
The doctor listens, nods,checks their book and says
(00:48):
you're fine, you don't have adisorder at all.
Wait what?
Same person, same symptoms, twocompletely different answers.
That's not a joke.
That's what happens becausepsychiatry has two competing
rule books the DSM-5 in Americaand the ICD-11 almost everywhere
else.
And here's the unsettling part.
(01:09):
These aren't little differences, like one spelling color and
the other spelling color.
We're talking about one booksaying you're mentally ill and
the other saying you're not.
So the question becomes ifsanity itself depends on your
zip code, how much of this isscience and how much of it is
politics, insurance and plainold compromise?
(01:31):
That's where we're headed today.
We're opening the manuals thatclaim to define reality and
asking if we've been gaslit intotrusting books that change
their definitions as often as apolitician changes campaign
promises.
Let's roll back the clock.
The DSM, that's, the Diagnosticand Statistical Manual of Mental
(01:53):
Disorders, was born in 1952.
The first edition was a slimpaperback 130 pages, about a
hundred disorders.
More pamphlet than Bible.
Fast forward 70 years.
The DSM-5 is now a doorstopOver 900 pages.
It covers hundreds ofconditions with pages of
(02:16):
checklists.
It's not just for psychiatrists.
Insurance companies use it todecide what they'll pay for
Lawyers.
Use it in court.
Schools use it for special edeligibility.
Even criminal cases lean on itto decide insanity defenses.
In short, if you live inAmerica, the DSM doesn't just
(02:37):
diagnose you, it defines yourreality inside the system.
Meanwhile, outside the US, theWorld Health Organization runs
the ICD, the InternationalClassification of Diseases.
It's the official standard inmost countries.
It covers everything frombroken legs to brain tumors and,
(02:58):
yes, it has a chapter on mentalhealth.
So here's the split.
Dsm runs America, icd runs theworld.
And here's the kicker theydon't always agree, sometimes
they overlap, sometimes theycontradict, and when they do,
you realize these books aren'tstone tablets from Mount Sinai.
(03:19):
They're written by committees,revised by votes and shaped by
whoever's at the table.
Want proof?
In 1968, the DSM-II listedhomosexuality as a mental
disorder.
Entire careers were built ontreating it.
By 1973, after activism,protests and a historic vote
(03:41):
inside the APA, it was removed.
Did brain scans suddenlydiscover something new?
Nope, the science didn't changeovernight.
The politics did, and that'sthe through line.
These manuals don't just reflectscience.
They reflect the compromises oftheir time, which brings us to
(04:01):
one of the biggest compromisesof all how the DSM and ICD
handle gender identity.
The DSM-5, released in 2013,introduced a new category Gender
dysphoria.
Notice the word choice.
The old label was genderidentity disorder.
(04:22):
That made the identity itselfsound like the illness.
The new label, gender dysphoria, says it's not the identity
that's disordered, it's thedistress that can come with it.
That change was designed toreduce stigma.
You're not sick for being trans, but if you're in deep pain
because your identity and yourbody don't align, that's what's
(04:44):
treated.
If you're in deep pain becauseyour identity and your body
don't align, that's what'streated.
Now, and here's the practicalside.
The DSM couldn't just deletethe category Because in the US,
if there's no diagnosis, there'sno insurance coverage.
Therapy, hormones, surgery noneof it gets reimbursed unless
(05:05):
there's a code.
So gender dysphoria became thecompromise Keep the code for
billing, soften the language forculture.
Meanwhile, the ICD-11, rolledout globally starting in 2022,
took a different path.
It created a category calledgender incongruence but moved it
out of the mental healthchapter entirely.
Instead, it put it underconditions related to sexual
(05:29):
health.
The signal was clear beingtransgender isn't a psychiatric
illness, but healthcare systemsstill need a code to authorize
treatment.
So the ICD built one withoutcalling it.
Mental Activists cheered.
Who declared victory fordepathologization.
Critics argued it was politicsdressed up as medicine, and the
(05:51):
contradiction was complete.
In America's DSM, it's still amental health diagnosis.
In the WHO's ICD, it's not Sameperson, same story.
Walk into an office in New Yorkyou have a psychiatric
condition.
Walk into an office in Parisyou don't.
(06:12):
And both manuals will insistthey're evidence-based,
objective and scientific.
If that doesn't feel likegaslighting being told both
answers are the truth at thesame time, I don't know what
does so.
Why do these manuals keepchanging?
Why is one disorder here todaygone tomorrow?
Why does crazy look one way inthe DSM and another way in the
(06:34):
ICD?
The answer is money, pressureand politics.
Let's start with money InAmerica.
If you don't have a code fromthe DSM you don't have insurance
coverage.
Period, no diagnosis, notherapy.
No diagnosis, no meds.
No diagnosis, no surgery.
(06:57):
Insurance company's computer iscolder than a banker in January
.
If it can't find the code, itwon't cut the check.
That's why gender dysphoriastayed in the DSM.
If it vanished, patients wouldbe on their own financially.
(07:19):
So the manual did a littletwo-step.
Okay, it's not your identity,that's the disorder, it's your
distress.
And just like that, the codesurvives, the bills get paid and
the insurance system keepshumming.
Science may drive the car, butinsurance is holding the
steering wheel.
Now let's add pressure Activism.
Think back to the 1970s.
(07:41):
Homosexuality was in the DSM.
Activists stormed APA meetings,staged sit-ins, even had a gay
psychiatrist testify from behinda mask.
By 1973, homosexuality wasvoted out.
And it wasn't becausescientists discovered a brand
new chromosome or cracked abrain scan mystery.
It was because the culturalwinds had shifted and the APA
(08:05):
bent with them.
That moment set a precedent.
If activism can rewrite oneentry, why not another?
Now, every hot-button diagnosiscarries the same undertone
who's lobbying the loudest?
And finally, politics.
The ICD isn't just a medicalbook, it's run by the World
(08:28):
Health Organization, which isalso a diplomatic body.
When WHO moved genderincongruence out of the mental
disorders section.
It was partly about aligningwith UN human rights language.
To some that was progress, toothers it was ideology with a
lab coat on.
So there you have it.
(08:50):
The DSM bends toward insurance,the ICD bends toward global
politics.
Both bend when the pressure'shigh enough.
And yet every time the publicis told this is objective, this
is settled science.
That's not objectivity, that'stheater, and we're the audience
being told not to notice thestagehands moving the scenery.
(09:13):
So are there competitors?
Yes, but they're more likeunderstudies who never get to
perform.
First up.
Rdoc Research, domain CriteriaBorn at the National Institute
of Mental Health.
The dream.
Forget categories, go straightto brain circuits and genes.
If the prefrontal cortex ismisfiring, treat that Sounds
(09:38):
brilliant.
Problem is you can't handsomeone a prescription labeled
for dysfunction in yourcorticostriatal pathways, and
you definitely can't bill BlueCross for it.
So RDOC stays in the lab,admired but impractical.
Then there's HITOP, thehierarchical taxonomy of
(09:59):
psychopathology.
Think of it like a giant map ofsymptoms.
Instead of neat boxes likedepression or anxiety, hitop
shows you clusters and overlaps,more data-driven, less
arbitrary.
But try explaining that to ateenager who just wants to know
if they're depressed.
Good news you're in the 67thpercentile of the internalizing
(10:20):
spectrum.
That doesn't exactly roll offthe tongue.
And then there's PDM-2, thepsychodynamic diagnostic manual.
This one comes frompsychoanalytic circles, less
about checklists, more about thestory of your personality, your
relationships, your inner world.
(10:40):
It's deep, it's thoughtful, butgood luck convincing an
insurance company to pay forexistential unease rooted in
early attachment.
So we're left with this.
The challengers may be smarter,but the incumbents are
entrenched Because, at the endof the day, only DSM and ICD can
feed the insurance computersand the government policies, and
(11:04):
that's what keeps them in power.
But just imagine what if someonebuilt a manual with no strings
attached.
It would look very different.
It would be dimensional, notyes or no boxes but scales
showing where you land.
It would be biological,grounded in brain science,
genetics and outcomes.
It would be transparent, honestabout what we know and what we
(11:28):
don't and, most importantly, itwould be independent, not shaped
by insurance lobbyists,activists or UN policy language.
Call it the physician's deskreference of the mind, an atlas,
not a compromise.
And here's the kicker thescience is already there.
(11:50):
We've got decades of imaging,data sets and longitudinal
studies.
What's missing isn't knowledge,it's courage, the courage to
publish something that can't begamed by billing codes or
rewritten by politics.
So what do we do with all this?
We've seen how the DSM and ICDbecame the rulebooks of
(12:12):
psychiatry.
We've seen how they disagree onone of the most sensitive
cultural issues of our time.
We've seen how insuranceactivism and politics quietly
twist the language.
And we've seen how smartermodels exist but never get their
shot.
And here's the bigger truthwhen institutions tell us their
(12:34):
definitions are final, but thosedefinitions change with every
new addition, that's not clarity, that's choreography.
Gaslighting thrives in thatspace is pulling a disappearing
act when the manual says onething in America, another in
(12:56):
Europe and both insist theirobjective.
When the definitions shift, butthe authority never blinks,
that isn't just confusing,that's manipulation in slow
motion.
So here's the first takeawaythe smartest people aren't the
loudest.
They're the ones asking theright questions, like if two
(13:18):
official manuals can't agree onwho's sick and who's not, how
settled can the science reallybe?
And here's the new zinger forthis episode.
Maybe the real question isn'twho gets to define crazy, maybe
it's.
Why do we keep letting themchange the answer without ever
admitting they did?
Before we dive back in, a quickword about the project.
(13:46):
That's bigger than this podcast.
I wrote a book.
It's called Distorted howgaslighting and poetic truth
bend our perception of reality,and it's out in every format you
actually use how Gaslightingand Poetic Truth Bend Our
Perception of Reality, and it'sout in every format you actually
use Paperback, kindle, appleBooks, amazon and Barnes Noble.
If you want the digital version, you can pre-order right now
for just $9.99.
(14:08):
That's cheaper than a fancycoffee and far less likely to
give you anxiety.
Here's the pitch.
If this podcast helps you spotthe gaslights of the day.
Distorted is the field manual.
It's the frameworks, thestories, the receipts all in one
place, the kind of book you canhand to your uncle, your
(14:30):
professor or that guy onFacebook who thinks TikTok
comments are peer-reviewedresearch.
And if you do grab a copy,here's my one ask leave a review
.
It's the simplest way to makesure the truth gets surfaced
instead of buried under thealgorithm's most dramatic trauma
wins policy.
So head to Amazon, barnes Nobleor Apple Books, pre-order the
(14:53):
Kindle version for $9.99 or getthe paperback if you're old
school Either way.
Thank you All.
Right back to the show.
So here's where we left off.
The DSM widened the borders.
Grief became depression,tantrums became mood disorders,
(15:17):
shyness became social anxiety.
And once those categories wereofficial, schools, clinics and
insurers had every reason totreat them as real estate to be
developed.
But you don't need to flipthrough a manual to see its
fingerprints.
Just walk into a classroom, sitin a pediatric waiting room or
overhear a dinner table wherediscipline has been outsourced
(15:38):
to therapy culture.
That's where Abigail Schreierpicks up the story in her book
Bad Therapy.
Not the politics of psychiatry,but the lived reality of kids
raised in a therapeutic age.
Kids who now know theiracronyms before their locker
combos.
Kids fluent in feelings butless fluent in life.
And here's the big questionSchreier asks and we should too.
(16:01):
If the cure is everywhere, whyaren't the kids getting better?
So here's where we left off.
The DSM widened the map.
What used to be sadness becamedepression, what used to be a
kid with a short fuse becamemood disorder.
What used to be shy becamesocial anxiety.
(16:24):
And once those categories wereofficial, the whole system had a
reason to treat them as realestate.
Clinics, schools, insuranceeveryone got their cut.
But here's the thing you don'tneed to read the DSM to see its
fingerprints.
You just need to walk into aclassroom, sit in a waiting room
or overhear a dinner tablewhere mom and dad are
(16:46):
negotiating bedtime like they'reat the UN.
That's where Abigail Schreierpicks up in bad Therapy, not the
manual, the fallout, howtherapy stopped being a
treatment and started becomingthe water kids swim in.
So let's ask what happens whentherapy stops being the
exception and becomes theculture.
(17:08):
A boy goes in for a stomachache,out goes the parent, in comes
the nurse.
Have you thought about killingyourself?
The kid had been thinking aboutbaseball stats.
Now he's wondering if he missedthe homework assignment about
planning his own funeral.
This is how safety cultureworks.
Assume everyone's at risk andyou end up planting ideas that
(17:29):
weren't there.
It's like asking every12-year-old if they've tried
heroin, just in case.
Next stop.
School Math waits, but firstfeelings.
Kids sit in a circle sharingtheir trauma.
One talks about a fight at home, another about a bad dream.
The quiet kid says I'm fine,wrong answer Pretty soon.
(17:56):
The lesson is clear the biggeryour pain, the bigger the
spotlight.
Classroom becomes talk show,vulnerability becomes
performance.
And math.
Math never happens At recess.
Kids used to trade Pokemon cards.
Now they trade acronyms.
Collect them all.
A label isn't just anexplanation anymore, it's a
brand.
Put it in your bio.
Put it on TikTok, get bonuspoints if your diagnosis comes
(18:19):
with meds.
It's identity as diagnosis andyou wonder why kids aren't
lining up to grow out of it.
Meanwhile, at home, disciplinegets rebranded as gentle
parenting, which sounds nice,until you realize it's just
negotiation theater.
Sweetie, would you like tobrush your teeth?
No, okay, how about if I readyou a book while you consider
(18:41):
brushing your teeth?
Authority isn't cruelty,authority is structure.
But now we've got parentsoutsourcing backbone to
therapists.
Kids don't feel empowered, theyfeel lost.
We used to call it parenting,now it's collaborative hostage
negotiation.
And online Trauma is trending.
(19:03):
The more tragic the story, thebigger the views.
Not war trauma my mom forgotsoccer practice trauma.
That's poetic truth at work.
It feels noble, it feelsdramatic, it feels true even if
it isn't.
And once you buy into that,every memory is clay.
Here's the gaslight we'remaking kids safer.
(19:28):
Look around Kids are moreanxious, more medicated, more
fragile than ever.
That's not safer, that's theopposite.
And here's the poetic truth.
Everyone has trauma.
It sounds comforting, it soundsunifying, but it's nonsense.
If trauma means everything,then it means nothing.
(19:49):
Therapy works when it's theexception, but when therapy
becomes the culture, kids don'tbuild muscles, they build
identities around fragility.
It's like spotting someone atthe gym and never letting them
lift the weight.
Yes, they're safe, but they'realso weak forever.
The DSM widened the map.
It turned ordinary sadness andstress into diagnosable
(20:12):
conditions and in doing so, gaveinstitutions a playbook for
expanding their reach.
Bad therapy shows what happenednext.
That manual didn't just sit ona shelf.
It trickled into classrooms,living rooms, tiktok feeds and
pediatric waiting rooms.
What was once a set ofcategories became a culture.
That's the bigger story.
(20:32):
Here.
A profession lowered the barand culture built an entire
childhood around it, whichleaves us with kids fluent in
fragility, parents fluent intherapy speak and institutions
fluent in billing codes.
Bad therapy didn't raisestronger kids.
It just raised better patients.
And that's the gaslight.
(20:52):
That all this is for the kids.
The reality it's for the system, and today we went there.
I'm Jim Detchen and you don'tneed all the answers, but you
should question the ones you'rehanded.
Until next time, stay skeptical, stay curious and always think
(21:13):
first, want more.
The full six-step framework weuse is at Gaslight360.com.
You can also dive into thedeeper story, the bio, the
podcast and the mission atJimDetchincom.
And if you like this one, tagit, save it, share it.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Paper Ghosts: The Texas Teen Murders
Paper Ghosts: The Texas Teen Murders takes you back to 1983, when two teenagers were found murdered, execution-style, on a quiet Texas hill. What followed was decades of rumors, false leads, and a case that law enforcement could never seem to close. Now, veteran investigative journalist M. William Phelps reopens the file — uncovering new witnesses, hidden evidence, and a shocking web of deaths that may all be connected. Over nine gripping episodes, Paper Ghosts: The Texas Teen Murders unravels a story 42 years in the making… and asks the question: who’s really been hiding the truth?
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com