The Association
Crossing Dialogues has recently published a research on the epistemology of
psychiatry. Its title is: “Neopositivism and the DSM psychiatric
classification. An epistemological history. Part 1: Theoretical comparison”.
The paper has been published in the prestigious international journal “History
of Psychiatry”, 2013, Vol. 24(2), pp.166-179.
The
following is the abstract:
Recent research suggests that the DSM psychiatric
classification is in a paradigmatic crisis and that the DSM-5 will be unable to
overcome it. One possible reason is that the DSM is based on a neopositivist
epistemology which is inadequate for the present-day needs of psychopathology.
However, in which sense is the DSM a neopositivist system? This paper will
explore the theoretical similarities between the DSM structure and the neopositivist
basic assumptions. It is shown that the DSM has the following neopositivist
features: (a) a sharp distinction between scientific and non-scientific
diagnoses; (b) the exclusion of the latter as nonsensical; (c) the faith on the
existence of a purely observable basis (the description of reliable symptoms);
(d) the introduction of the operative diagnostic criteria as rules of
correspondence linking the observational level to the diagnostic concept.http://hpy.sagepub.com/content/24/2/166.abstract
