There are different ways you can define a term. You can define a term like depression as being about certain neurological mechanisms or you can define it as whether a psychiatrist labels it as depression. The DSM is famously neutral about mechanisms and just cares about a list of symptoms as accessed by the subjective judgement of a psychiatrist.
I think that’s the DSM having that perspective is holding back progress at dealing with mental illnesses. While I think the DSM doesn’t directly have a definition for traumaI would expect that it would be good to have nonsubjective definitions for trauma as well.
There are different ways you can define a term. You can define a term like depression as being about certain neurological mechanisms or you can define it as whether a psychiatrist labels it as depression. The DSM is famously neutral about mechanisms and just cares about a list of symptoms as accessed by the subjective judgement of a psychiatrist.
I think that’s the DSM having that perspective is holding back progress at dealing with mental illnesses. While I think the DSM doesn’t directly have a definition for traumaI would expect that it would be good to have nonsubjective definitions for trauma as well.