The "mental feature" in mental illness: difficulties that this reality poses for diagnosis and classification

Abstract

Four points are considered in this article. In the first place, it is argued that the "settings" of psychiatric care express the need to respond to the degree of decrease in personal freedom of the patient. Then, the issue of how "the mental feature" of the mental pathology has been recognized and categorized since the 18th century is examined, pointing out the difficulties involved in considering the mental nature of the subject of psychiatry. In the third place, the issue of how current systems of diagnosis and classification are posed regarding this reality is briefly looked at. Finally, the characteristics of a working hypothesis that allows organizing consistent clinical facts providing a heuristic perspective are analyzed.