ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews the background to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-III) classification of Anxiety Disorders for adults and discusses problems with the diagnostic criteria that have recently become apparent, as well as possible solutions to these problems. In DSM-III the individual DSM-III neuroses were reclassified with other diagnostic categories that shared their essential descriptive features. The elimination of Neurosis as a diagnostic class from the DSM-III classification was extremely controversial. The developers of the DSM-III classification initially were unsure under what diagnostic rubric to put the time-honored category of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. Almost all individuals experience anxiety when speaking before a large group of people or to a small group if their performance is being evaluated. In addition, individuals with public speaking phobia usually show little evidence of other psychopathology, whereas clinical experience indicates that individuals with other Social Phobias usually have considerable associated personality pathology.
