The Sunday Times
By Lois Rogers
February 14, 2010

Psychiatrists are to give official recognition to dozens of new mental disorders, including a condition nicknamed “Mary Whitehouse syndrome” — the thrill of being appalled by pornography and other obscenities.

Absexuality appears to have been inspired by the zeal of Whitehouse, the campaigner who railed against smut on television.

The condition is one of many mood disorders and personality traits that are likely to be added to the next edition of the psychiatrists’ “bible”.

The disorders, which also include hypersexuality — the desire for multiple partners, perhaps characterised by the golfer Tiger Woods — reflect changing social patterns.

However, critics believe their classification as psychiatric problems may lead them to be exploited for profit by drug companies.

Other new conditions include sluggish cognitive tempo disorder, which some would regard as simple laziness, and relational disorder, in which two people — often a separating couple — struggle to get on.

People who whinge constantly may be suffering negativistic personality disorder. Intermittent explosive disorder — otherwise known as adult tantrums — is also defined for the first time.

The conditions are named in a draft version of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders , a key reference book for psychiatrists for more than 50 years.

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