Perché non dovremmo cercare una definizione di “disturbo mentale” / Why we don’t need a definition of “mental disorder”

  • Elisabetta Lalumera
Keywords: Definition, Mental Disorder, Disease, DSM-5, Concepts

Abstract

Do we need a definition of the concept of mental disorder in terms of necessary and sufficient conditions? In this paper I agree for a negative answer, after providing a brief account of the debate in the philosophy of medicine and psychiatry, and examining the practical and conceptual reasons that have brought philosophers and psychiatrists for having one in the DSM-5.

References

AMORETTI, Maria Cristina (2015), Filosofia e medicina, Carocci, Roma.

AMORETTI, Maria Cristina, LALUMERA, Elisabetta (in stampa), «A Potential Tension in DMS-5: The General Definition of Mental Disorder vs. Some Specific Diagnostic Criteria», in Journal of Medicine and Philosophy.

APA (American Psychiatric Association) (1980), DSM-III. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 3rd edn., American Psychiatric Association, Washington DC.

APA (1987), DSM-III-R: Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, American Psychiatric Association, Washington DC.

APA (2013) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5®), Washington, DC, American Psychiatric Publications (DSM-5: Manuale diagnostico e statistico dei disturbi mentali, trad. it., Raffaello Cortina, Milano 2014).

BAYER, Ronald (1981), Homosexuality and American psychiatry: The politics of diagnosis, Princeton University Press, Princeton.

BOORSE, Christopher (1975), «On the Distinction Between Disease and Illness»,

in Philosophy & Public Affairs, n. 5 (Autumn 1975), pp. 49-68.

BOORSE, Christopher (1977), «Health as a Theoretical Concept», in Philosophy of Science, 44, pp. 542-573

BOORSE, Christopher (2011), Concepts of health and disease, in GIFFORD, Fred, Philosophy of medicine, Amsterdam, Elsevier, pp. 13-64.

BRIDGMAN, Percy (1927), The logic of modern physics, Macmillan, New York.

COOPER, Rachel (2005), Classifying madness, Springer, Dordrecht.

DANIELS, Norman (2007), Just health: meeting health needs fairly, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

FIRST, Michael, PINCUS, Harold (2000), DSM: Fourth Edition, Text revision, American Psychiatric Association, Arlington, VA.

FULFORD, Bill (1989), Moral Theory and Medical Practice, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

FULFORD, Bill (2001), «What is (mental) disease?: an open letter to Christopher Boorse», in Journal of Medical Ethics, n. 27 (April 2001), pp. 80-85.

FULFORD, Bill, et al. (2006), The Oxford handbook of philosophy and psychiatry, Oxford University Press, Oxford.

HORWITZ, Allan, WAKEFIELD, Jerome (2007), The loss of sadness: How psychiatry transformed normal sorrow into depressive disorder, Oxford University Press, Oxford.

JASPERS, KARL (1913), Allgemeine Psychopathologie, Springer-Verlag, Berlin Heidelberg (Psicopatologia generale, trad. di Priori Romolo, Il pensiero scientifico, Roma 1964).

KINGHORN, Warren (2013), The biopolitics of defining “mental disorder”, in PARIS Joel, PHILIPS James, a cura di, Making the DSM-5, Springer, New York, pp. 47-61.

KUHN, Thomas (1962), The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, The University of Chicago Press, Chicago (La struttura delle rivoluzioni scientifiche, trad. di Carugo Adriano, Einaudi, Torino 1970).

LALUMERA, Elisabetta (2009) Cosa sono i concetti, Laterza, Roma-Bari.

LALUMERA, Elisabetta (2016) «Saving the DSM-5? Descriptive conceptions and theoretical concepts of mental disorders», in MEDICINA & STORIA, n. 8 (2016), pp. 109-128.

LAING, Ronald (1960), The Divided Self: An Existential Study in Sanity and Madness, Penguin, Harmondsworth (L’io diviso, trad. di Mezzacapa Davide, Il Saggiatore, Milano 1969).

LUCAS, Kevin & LLOYD, Barbara (2005) Health promotion: evidence and experience, Sage, London.

MaCCAFFREY, Joseph, MACHERY, Edouard (2012), «Philosophical issues about concepts», in Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Cognitive Science, n. 3 (February 2012), pp. 265-279.

NORDENFELT, Lennart (2001), Health, science, and ordinary language, Rodopi, Amsterdam.

NORDENFELT, Lennart (2007), «The concepts of health and illness revisited», in Medicine, Health Care, and Philosophy, n. 10 (March 2007), pp. 1-5.

REZNEK, Lawrie (1987), The Nature of Disease, Routledge, New York.

ROBINS, Eli, GUZE, Samuel (1970), «Establishment of diagnostic validity in psychiatric illness: its application to schizophrenia», in American Journal of Psychiatry, n. 126 (7) (January 1970), pp. 983-987.

ROSCH, Eleanor, MERVIS, Carolyn (1975), «Family resemblances: Studies in the internal structure of categories», in Cognitive psychology, n. 7(4) (October 1975), pp. 573-605.

SACKETT, David, et al. (2007), «Evidence based medicine: what it is and what it isn’t», in Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research, n. 455 (January), pp. 3-5.

SCHRAMME, Thomas (2007), «The significance of the concept of disease for justice in health care», in Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics, n. 28 (2), pp. 121-135.

SCHWARTZ, Peter (2014), «Small tumors as risk factors not disease», in Philosophy of Science, n. 81 (5), pp. 986-998.

SEDGWICK, Peter (1973), «Illness-mental and otherwise», in Studies-Hastings Center, n. 1 (3), 19-40.

SZASZ, Thomas (1960), «The myth of mental illness», in American Psychologist, n. 15(2), pp.113-118.

TWADDLE, Andrew (1994), «Disease, illness and sickness: Three central concepts in the theory of health», in Linköping: Studies on Health and Society, n. 18, pp.1-18.

WAKEFIELD, Jerome C. (1992) «The concept of mental disorder: On the boundary between biological facts and social values», in American Psychologist, n. 47 (3), p. 373.

WAKEFIELD, Jerome C. (1999) Evolutionary versus prototype analyses of the concept of disorder. Journal of abnormal psychology, n. 108, 3, pp. 374-385.

WAKEFIELD, Jerome C. (2007), «The concept of mental disorder: diagnostic implications of the harmful dysfunction analysis», in World Psychiatry, n. 6(3), pp. 149-154.

WITTGENSTEIN, Ludwig (1953). Philosophische Untersuchungen, (Ricerche filosofiche, trad. di Piovesan Renzo, Trinchero Mario, Einaudi, Torino 2006).

WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION (WHO) (1946), «Preamble to the Constitution of the World Health Organization as adopted by the International Health Conference, New York, 19-22 June», http://www.who.int/about/mission/en/

How to Cite
Lalumera, E. (1) “Perché non dovremmo cercare una definizione di “disturbo mentale” / Why we don’t need a definition of ‘mental disorder’”, Rivista Italiana di Filosofia del Linguaggio, 00. Available at: http://rifl.unical.it/index.php/rifl/article/view/452 (Accessed: 21November2024).