title: Organic unity theory: an integrative mind-body theory for psychiatry.
abstract: The potential of psychiatry as an integrative science has been impeded by an internal schism that derives from the duality of mental and physical. Organic unity theory is proposed as a conceptual framework that brings together the terms of the mind-body duality in one coherent perspective. Organic unity theory is braided of three strands: identity, which describes the relationship between mentally described events and corresponding physically described events; continuity, which describes the linguistic-conceptual system that contains both mental and physical terms; and dialectic, which describes the relationship between the empirical way of knowing that is associated with the physical domain of the linguistic-conceptual system and the hermeneutic way of knowing that is associated with the mental domain. Each strand represents an integrative formulation that resolves an aspect of mental-physical dualism into an underlying unity. After the theory is presented, its implications for psychiatry are briefly considered.
authors.affiliation: Minnesota Institute of Psychiatry, St. Paul 55105, USA.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Goodman
mesh_terms: D003210:Concept Formation; D006801:Humans; D008037:Linguistics; D019222:Mind-Body Relations, Metaphysical; D011570:Psychiatry; D011582:Psychological Theory; D012586:Science