As a clinician, I want to give my patients the tools they need to address their problems, which includes the vocabulary to talk about it. At the same time, I want to avoid a situation where patients are understanding the diagnostic label in a concrete manner as a discrete disease entity or as their personal identity. It becomes a delicate balancing act. Clinical concepts are appealing because they offer a useful hermeneutic lens through which to look at our problems. However, they can be over-applied and over-extended, and they are not universally helpful. (View Highlight)
The key to mitigating many of the risks of diagnosis lies in being mindful that a diagnosis is just one piece of a much more detailed puzzle of personhood, a useful but fallible tool, something we are prepared to put aside once it has outlived its usefulness. If clinical diagnosis is understood as one way, among many, of conceptualizing a problem, this encourages clinicians and society at large to remain flexible, responsive, and open to multiple understandings of human suffering. (View Highlight)