Andrea et al,
An interesting thread.
I have a suggestion for references of possible interest--and a 
possible place to publish.
         As a source of interest:  In the last issue of the APA 
Newsletter on Philosophy and Medicine there were a few pieces from a 
Committee panel at Eastern division APA last fall--one titled 
"Nosological Validity of the DSM," by Claire Pouncey, and another on 
Dysthemic Disorder in the DSM by Janet Radden.  Mind you, this is not 
my area AT ALL, so I'm not sure whether y'all will find the contents 
of use, but the two can be found at
[ http://www.apaonline.org/publications/newsletters/v08n2_Medicine_index.aspx ]
         As a place to publish:  We don't necessarily publish all or 
only mental health stuff--but if you have something that might be of 
interest to our audience, you might consider sending me material.  We 
are only on-line, not hard copy, but we are indexed in Medline and 
put out two issues a year.  (I know you know about us, Andrea, 
because I published a poem of yours in my first issue as 
editor--titled "therapist"--and have published successor poems in 
each issue since--one from a patient perspective, and one from a 
therapists' perspective.)
         I went to a talk by Ian Hacking earlier this year on "the 
literature of autism", where I learned that he's been doing work on 
psychiatric diagnosis and natural kinds for a number of years.  Who 
knew?  (I guess the fact that I didn't know shows that I've not been 
keeping up.)  It was not particularly feminist--but it was really 
interesting.  I'm not sure whether it fell in the category of 
'narrative ethics' or was more along the line of 'narrative 
politics'--but he talked about the possible normative impact of the 
various recent books by and about people with autism.
         Keep up the good work...and get in touch if any of you have 
a little piece on something in a drawer that you'd like to send out 
for a first run in the Newsletter--publication there does not 
preclude publication in a more finished form elsewhere.
         Mary Rorty for the Newsletter



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