What Andrew Scull has said about Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders

2 quotes · 1 episode · Sep 17, 2026

Andrew Scull, British-American sociologist and historian of psychiatry, emeritus professor at UC San Diego, has been quoted on Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders 2 times in 1 episode of Lex Fridman Podcast, most recently on September 17, 2026. Each quote below is verbatim and links to the moment it was said.

In their words

Scull describes Rosenhan's On Being Sane in Insane Places as a scientific fraud that nonetheless spurred DSM-III's reform of diagnosis.
“via a very famous study that's a scientific fraud. by David Rosenhorn called On Being Sane in Insane Places”
Lex Fridman Podcast: #502 – Psychiatry, Insane Asylums, Mental Illness, ECT, Lobotomies, Freud & Jung (Sep 17, 2026) · Listen from 14:10
Scull reports Allen Frances's view that rising autism diagnoses stem mainly from loosened DSM-IV criteria.
“is more driven by the fact he loosened the criteria for the diagnosis than it is because there are more actual cases”
Lex Fridman Podcast: #502 – Psychiatry, Insane Asylums, Mental Illness, ECT, Lobotomies, Freud & Jung (Sep 17, 2026) · Listen from 3:22:45

#502 – Psychiatry, Insane Asylums, Mental Illness, ECT, Lobotomies, Freud & Jung
Lex Fridman Podcast · Sep 17, 2026
Historian Andrew Scull talks with Lex Fridman about the history of psychiatry, from asylums, eugenics, lobotomy and ECT to Freud, CBT, psychiatric drugs and psychiatry's current crisis.