Extract from Robert Whitaker & Lisa Cosgrove's 'Psychiatry Under the Influence' “As Kriss observed in his article [in which he reviews the diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (DSM) as if it were a work of fiction], the DSM locates problems within the biology of the individual. This, in turn, is an understanding that encourages society to ignore social factors that may create mental difficulties for so many. If depression, anxiety, and other psychiatric symptoms arise from neurotransmitters that are out of whack, then society–much like the individual patient–is not prompted to consider the social context for the distress. Perhaps the best example of this is how foster children are regularly treated today. Such children can be understood to have drawn the short straw in the lottery of life, born into a dysfunctional family situation, where abuse of many kinds may be rampant. Yet, such children today often diagnosed with a mental disorder. Societ