The empiricist and his new clothes: DSM-III in perspective

The authors examine and critique the methodological underpinnings and programmatic goals of DSM-III's underlying doctrine--strict empiricism. The methodological program of DSM-III emphasizes description and the reduction of inference and theory. Regardless of appearances to the contrary, these goals have not been approached, cannot be attained, and should not be pursued, at least in their extreme form. They are throwbacks to earlier and now revised views of science. These goals give the highest priority to things that either should not receive it or that are secondary outgrowths of other accomplishments, and they have the potential to discourage the conceptual and theoretical developments that are the prime movers of scientific progress, according to the authors.