ABSTRACT
One of the challenges of psychotherapy is figuring out what is troubling one's clients that needs to be addressed. While the various theories of psychotherapy have a lot to say about general 'issues', they are also called upon to provide specific diagnoses. There are ongoing disagreements in their field regarding this area of assessment. This chapter provides an introduction to that debate. In the world of psychotherapy, there is one dominant nosology, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. The chapter also discusses the seven ways of conceptualizing psychopathology. Maddux, Winstead, and Gosselin postulate seven different ways of conceptualizing psychopathology. The first is statistical deviance; and the second is maladaptive behavior. A third conception is distress and disability; and fourth way of conceptualizing psychopathology is as social deviance. The fifth conceptualization focuses on is dysregulation; and the sixth definition is harmful dysfunction. The seventh and last definition discussed by Maddux, Winstead, and Gosselin is the DSM model.
