Psychiatry by the Book: A cursory look at the mental disorder diagnostic process

Psychological disorder diagnoses have spiked dramatically in the last 30 years, bringing into question the environmental origins of these disorders.  Are there environmental factors such as pollution, high stress lifestyles of capitalist societies, and technological augmentations (i.e. television and the internet) which have changed the way humans function on a biological level?  In contrast perhaps progress has been made in the diagnoses of mental disorders, such that current diagnosis parameters include a wider range of symptoms than have been used to diagnose mental illness in the past.
A look into a psychiatrists office is enlightening and marginally nerve-racking.  Diagnostics often proceed with a psychiatrist, the subject seeking evaluation, and a friend or family member of the subject  in a question and answer style conversation.  The psychiatrist is often toting the Diagnostic and Statistical Manuals of Mental Disorders (DSM) “i.e. the bible of what is wrong with your brain”, referencing a diagnostic chart with specific questions aimed at assessing the presence/gravity of your mental illness.  For the subject this is not always the most self-esteem boosting activity because the evaluation can quickly unearth concerns that your friend has had all of this time about your quirks, which they have realized, through the course of the psychiatric evaluation, must be due to the mental disorder that the subject has.  In some cases a power complex can develop through comparison of the subject’s responses to the friend’s response to invasive questions about the subject’s personality.  For example, if the psychiatrist asks the subject if they obsess over certain aspects of their life, the subject might say “not really”, but the subject’s friend lapses through memories looking for the odd behavior and says “yeah you have been extremely focused on ______ since you were young.”  The friend’s response must be looked at subjectively due to the fact that they might not be interested in the subject’s interests, which can make them more prone to denoting certain behaviors obsessive as opposed to normal.
Throughout the diagnosis the string of question from the DSM are asked and the subject’s and friend’s answers about the subject are added up in a format that allows the psychiatrist to say “yes you have this disorder”, or ” no you don’t have this disorder.”  Either way the diagnostic process is far less empirical than medical science is used to employing.  The “shotgun approach” to mental disorder diagnosis that the DSM offers is crude and has shortcomings, however it is the best mechanism presently available to diagnose patients with a particular mental disorder and help the psychiatrist treat the patient in an optimal fashion.  Much progress is yet to be made in the realm of psychological disorder diagnostics, but the methods in use today are the best yet to surface.