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Throughout the revision of DSM-5 (2013), the need of strengthening cultural aspects was emphasized. The Cultural Formulation in DSM-IV was thus evaluated, and experts appointed by the DSM-5 Task Force suggested appropriate changes. This article shows that the revised manual tries to counter previous critical remarks on ethnocentrism and develop the concept of culture that had been deemed too individually centred. However, by equating culture with non-westerness, the manual continues its ethnocentric pathway presenting DSM-diagnoses as universal and cultural differences as deviances. With its emphasis on sociocultural context, the chapters on culture also depart from the general symptom based structure of the manual. Against this background, the author argues, attending to sociocultural context runs the risk of becoming an ethnic dividing-line in the psychiatric diagnostic procedure instead of embracing everyone suffering from mental illness.

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