The Psychopath Test

by Jon Ronson

Internet Addiction had already been rejected by the DSM-V board. It had been the idea of a Portland, Oregon-based psychiatrist named Jerald Block: ‘Internet addiction appears to be a common disorder that merits inclusion in DSM-V,’ he wrote in the March 2008 American Journal of Psychiatry. ‘Negative repercussions include arguments, lying, poor achievement, social isolation, and fatigue.’ But the DSM-V board had disagreed. They said spending too long on the Internet might be considered a symptom of depression, but not a unique disorder. They agreed to mention it in DSM-V’s appendix, but everyone knew the appendix was the graveyard of mental disorders. (I didn’t want to admit it to the Scientologists, but I was secretly in favour of Internet Addiction being classified a disorder, as I rather liked the idea of those people who had debated whether I was a shill or stupid being declared insane.)