By Joel A. Moskowitz MD
LA JOLLA, California — It is common for laypersons to scoff and ridicule the mentally aberrant and to deride those who ‘treat’ such suffering. Mishegas is the Yiddish label. Jay Neugebren, Michael B. Friedman MSW and Lloyd I. Sederer MD have crafted (potchkied) a parody of the DSM-5. (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders...now in its fifth edition). This tome of about a thousand pages, drawing heavily on the Yiddish idiom, can be said to be divided into major and minor mishegekite.
The three authors of “The Diagnostic Manual of Mishegas” have impressive mental health ‘braid’ . Jay Neugeboren is a prize winning author of novels and non-fiction books, has been a keynote speaker for numerous mental health associations. He scribed the story of his brother who was mentally ill and was institutionalized.
Michael B.Friedman MSW has been a clinician, an administrator (Regional Director of New York State Office of Mental Health), and has founded an organization sto address policy and advocacy for the mentally ill.
Lloyd I Sederer MD has been the Medical Director of the New York State Office of Mental Health and as with his two co-authors has an impressive list of credentials. The ‘Diagnostic” Manual is divided into the following topics:
Categories of Mishegas; Nervous Conditions of Everyday Life; Tsuris Reactions and Sequela Tsuris-addiction; The Wisdom of Gornish Helfin; Verklempt; Finster in di oygen; Tsimmis; Plotz; Farmisht; Fartoots; Fartsadikt; Fertummelt; Ferdrayt; Farfolen; Fershlugginah; Spilkes Minor and Spilkes Major; Cockamamy Conditions of Character; Schmuck; Schlemiel; Schlemazel; Shmegegge; Shmendrick; Shnook; Shmo; Shlub; Yutz, Putz; Shnorrer; Kvetch Noodj; Yenta; Momzer; Chalaria; Alrightnik (masculine), Alrightnikeh (feminine); Alter Kocker (AK); Fresser; Chazzer; Shikker; Farshlepteh Krenk; Appendix Relating to Ethics and Matters Otherwise Unspecified.
The need for a humorous book such as this can be appreciated when one considers how the practice of psychiatry has evolved.
* An 1840 census divided mentally ill folk into idiocy or insanity. There was little consensus among ‘healers’ practitioners who professed to treat the mentally ill.
* Under General William Menninger (WWI) the military forged a statistical manual. “Shell shock” has since been morphed into the ever popular PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder). Purists wince when a “traumatic” splinter is diagnosed PTSD. All this has become a focus of political dispute: Is it migraine inducing artful diagnostic slight of mind to facilitate compensation from insurance companies, or do insurance companies consider their main function to be the collection of premiums; not the payment of benefits?
* When I was on the academic faculty of Columbia University in Psychiatry, circa 1964, the American Psychiatric Association set out to expand the tiny manual that existed up to that point. Its first edition was less than 200 pages and prompted a dispute about homosexual males by reporting a study that found that they were no more unhappy than heterosexual males. It was controversially suggested back then that it was an error to label homosexual males as pathologic.
This reviewer prescribes this Manual for those persons who have an important mental health asset: a sense of humor. This book is a shaina gelachter. Rx Rx Rx Rx (4/5) Amazon has copies for $8.21 plus shipping.
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Dr. Moskowitz is a freelance writer based in La Jolla. He may be contacted at joel.moskowitz@sdjewishworld.com