The proper place of subjectivity, meaning, and folk psychology in psychiatry

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Abstract

‘The proper place of subjectivity, meaning, and folk psychology in psychiatry’ argues that Steven Hyman’s vision for psychiatry is excessively bioreductive. Hyman wrongly assumes that conceptual mental content is reducible to brain state descriptions and mistakes the neural vehicle of content for the content itself. Once we see that conceptual content, including the referents of folk psychology, shape brain activity, it becomes clear that content itself (or a lack of it) can be pathological. Therefore, treatment will sometimes be effective, even curative, by addressing that content through discursive interaction with the patient qua person. Diagnosis and effective treatment of mental disorders cannot just focus on neurobiology, as Hyman claims, both processes must also consider conceptual content and the complex interactions between content and the neurobiology instantiating it.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationPsychiatry reborn
Subtitle of host publicationbiopsychosocial psychiatry in modern medicine
EditorsJulian Savulescu, Rebecca Roache, Will Davies, J. Pierre Loebel
Place of PublicationOxford, UK
PublisherOxford University Press
Chapter18
Pages290-303
Number of pages14
ISBN (Electronic)9780198789697
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2020
Externally publishedYes

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