ABSTRACT
The contemporary inventory of psychological syndromes is striking in its breadth and variety. Whatever the (perceived) origin of individual syndromes – mental trauma, physical injury, substance ingestion, stress, hormonal fluctuations, genetic predisposition, psychological or physical addiction – it is hard to ignore the expansion in diagnoses that is under way. This chapter reviews the means through which diagnostic categories are established and come to be accepted within the psychological and medical communities. It explains the mechanisms by which syndromes and other types of evidence are admitted into the courtroom. The chapter overviews the explicit relation between psychology and law, explaining the ways in which it operates via diagnostic categories and admissibility standards and highlighting the epistemological assumptions on which these processes are based.
