A philosophical view on concepts in psychiatry.
This essay first outlines a philosophical theory of concepts and then applies it to two areas of relevance to psychiatrists, especially forensic psychiatrists. In the philosophical theory, the respective roles of verbal and non-verbal definitions are illuminated, and the importance of the phenomenon of division of semantic labour is stressed. It is pointed out that vagueness and ambiguity of a term often result when the term is used for several practical purposes at the same time. Such multi-purpose uses of terms may explain both the current problems associated with the Swedish forensic-psychiatric concept of a severe mental disorder and some of the shortcomings of DSM-IV.
Malmgren
Helge
H
Department of Philosophy, Linguistics and Theory of Science, University of Gothenburg, Sweden. helge.malmgren@filosofi.gu.se
Radovic
Susanna
S
Thorén
Henrik
H
Haglund
Björn
B
D003210:Concept Formation; D005555:Forensic Psychiatry; D006801:Humans; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis; D010686:Philosophy, Medical; D011570:Psychiatry; D012720:Severity of Illness Index