A woman's view of DSM-III.

Argues that one reason women's treatment rates for mental illness are higher than men's is that masculine-biased assumptions about what behaviors are healthy and what behaviors are "crazy" are codified in diagnostic criteria and thus influence diagnosis and treatment patterns. Several theories accounting for women's higher treatment rates are reviewed. P. Chesler's (1972) theory of women's overconforming and underconforming to sex-role stereotypes is evaluated in the light of the I. D. Broverman et al (see record 1970-06951-001) findings that therapists' criteria for healthiness in men and healthiness in adults were the same, but their criteria for healthiness in women were different. The implications of DSM-III's definition of mental disorder, the diagnoses of Histrionic Personality Disorder and Dependent Personality Disorder, and 2 fictitious diagnostic categories (Independent Personality Disorder and Restricted Personality Disorder) are discussed to illustrate assumptions implicit in DSM-III diagnoses. It is shown that behaving in a feminine stereotyped manner alone will earn a DSM-III diagnosis but behaving in a masculine stereotyped manner alone will not. A past diagnosis regarding women's sexuality is reviewed to specifically illustrate past assumptions resulting in the labeling of healthy women as sick. (33 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)