We should take a model agnostic perspective towards mental disorders
Some people believe psychiatry can find the true essence of mental disorders, and some people take mental disorders to be restrictive myths that do not exist at all. Another perspective on psychiatry is model agnostic. Mental disorders are not real diseases as the first perspective might wish; but neither are they the dangerous myths feared by the other perspective. They only focus on what works best—not distracted by biological reductionism or rationalist doubt. They recognize that each perception that we make is best considered to be a gamble rather than a certainty, and accept that we are constantly constructing perceptions and finding temporary explanations that are useful, but never completely accurate. Our classification of mental disorders is no more than a collection of fallible and limited constructs that seeks but never fully finds the truth—but remains our best current way of communicating about, treating, and researching mental disorders.
Schizophrenia is a useful construct—not myth, not disease. It is a description of a particular set of psychological problems, not an explanation of their cause. Someday we will have a much more accurate understanding and more precise ways of describing these same problems. But for now, schizophrenia is very valuable in our day-to-day work. And so are the other DSM disorders. It is good to know and use the DSM definitions, but not to reify or worship them.
References
- Frances, Allen. (2013). Saving Normal CHAPTER 1. What’s Normal and What’s Not? (p. 41). New York, NY: HarperCollins.
Metadata
Type:🔴 Tags: Psychiatry / Philosophy / Epistemology Status:☀️