Classifying Psychopathology

Scholars question the extent to which current psychiatric classification systems are inadequate for diagnosis, treatment, and research of mental disorders and offer suggestions for improvement. In this volume, leading philosophers of psychiatry examine psychiatric classification systems, including the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), asking whether current systems are sufficient for effective diagnosis, treatment, and research. Doing so, they take up the question of whether mental disorders are natural kinds, grounded in something in the outside world. Psychiatric categories based on natural kinds should group phenomena in such a way that they are subject to the same type of causal explanations and respond similarly to the same type of causal interventions. When these categories do not evince such groupings, there is reason to revise existing classifications.

The contributors all question current psychiatric classifications systems and the assumptions on which they are based. They differ, however, as to why and to what extent the categories are inadequate and how to address the problem. Topics discussed include taxometric methods for identifying natural kinds, the error and bias inherent in DSM categories, and the complexities involved in classifying such specific mental disorders as "oppositional defiance disorder” and pathological gambling.

Contributors George Graham, Nick Haslam, Allan Horwitz, Harold Kincaid, Dominic Murphy, Jeffrey Poland, Nancy Nyquist Potter, Don Ross, Dan Stein, Jacqueline Sullivan, Serife Tekin, Peter Zachar

Auteur

Harold Kincaid is Professor in the School of Economics and Director of the Research Unit in Behavioural Economics and Neuroeconomics at the University of Cape Town. He is the coeditor of Distributed Cognition and the Will: Individual Volition and Social Context and What Is Addiction? (both published by the MIT Press).

Jacqueline A. Sullivan is Assistant Professor in the Department of Philosophy at Western University, London, Ontario, and a member of the Rotman Institute of Philosophy at the University of Western Ontario. She is the author of multiple recent journal articles on topics in philosophy of neuroscience.

Harold Kincaid is Professor in the School of Economics and Director of the Research Unit in Behavioural Economics and Neuroeconomics at the University of Cape Town. He is the coeditor of Distributed Cognition and the Will: Individual Volition and Social Context and What Is Addiction? (both published by the MIT Press).

Jacqueline A. Sullivan is Assistant Professor in the Department of Philosophy at Western University, London, Ontario, and a member of the Rotman Institute of Philosophy at the University of Western Ontario. She is the author of multiple recent journal articles on topics in philosophy of neuroscience.

Jeffrey Poland is Visiting Professor of Science and Technology Studies at Brown University and a Senior Lecturer in History, Philosophy, and Social Science at Rhode Island School of Design. He is the coeditor of Addiction and Responsibility (MIT Press).

Peter Zachar is Professor in the Department of Psychology at Auburn University Montgomery. He is the author of Psychological Concepts and Biological Psychiatry: A Philosophical Analysis.

Dominic Murphy is Senior Lecturer in the Unit for History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Sydney.

George Graham is a Professor of Philosophy and Neuroscience at Georgia State University in Atlanta, Georgia.

Harold Kincaid is Professor in the School of Economics and Director of the Research Unit in Behavioural Economics and Neuroeconomics at the University of Cape Town. He is the coeditor of Distributed Cognition and the Will: Individual Volition and Social Context and What Is Addiction? (both published by the MIT Press).

Don Ross is Professor of Economics and Dean of Commerce at the University of Cape Town, and Research Fellow in the Center for Economic Analysis of Risk at Georgia State University. He is the author of Economic Theory and Cognitive Science: Microexplanation (MIT Press, 2005), companion volume to Midbrain Mutiny.

Serife Tekin is Assistant Professor in the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies at Daemen College, Amherst, New York.

Jacqueline A. Sullivan is Assistant Professor in the Department of Philosophy at Western University, London, Ontario, and a member of the Rotman Institute of Philosophy at the University of Western Ontario. She is the author of multiple recent journal articles on topics in philosophy of neuroscience.