ABSTRACT
This chapter suggests a theoretical alternative for examining this and other controversies by paying attention to the issue of the "ownership" of social problems and employing a social world’s perspective. Explanation for the controversy is narrowed to a simplistic political accounting of the events. The representation of the Late luteal phase dysphoric disorder (LLPDD) controversy offered by these participants in the controversy is one that is a rational, scientific, and bureaucratic fact. The actors and groups involved in the LLPDD controversy "are not only those individually and collectively 'present/articulate and committed to action in that arena but also those implicated by actions in that arena. The decision to include LLPDD in an appendix of Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM)-III-R results from a fair and judicious settlement in the delegation of bureaucratic and scientific responsibility for Premenstrual syndrome—all according to rational, logical procedures.
