ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on two such efforts: C. L. M. Keyes and F. A. Huppert and T. T. C. So, and outlines three arguments that critics have levelled against the diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders in relation to its use in clinical settings. The chapter considers each of these criticisms in more detail and relates them specifically to efforts within positive psychology to develop diagnostic accounts of positive mental health states. In an effort to challenge mental health stigma, recent decades have seen a concerted effort to widen public awareness of the medical model. What could be the negative consequences of "diagnosing" positive mental health states? Individuals who meet Keyes's. If R. P. Bentall's paper was intended to critique the state of psychiatric practice, a reader versed in the recent development of positive psychology might enjoy a wry smile for different reasons. Positive mental health states such as flourishing are social constructs and as such are irreducibly normative.
