Mental disorders are somatic disorders, a comment on M. Stier and T. Schramme

Are Mental Disorders Brain Diseases and What Does This Mean?

“…This is to suggest that the medical staff judgment potential also plays a crucial role in identifying the disease. Since there is evidence that some patients had been assigned a diagnosis of depression but actually had suffered from unrecognized infections such as borreliose and hepatitis [22]. If the identification was only at the person-level so how can we explain these mistakes?…”

“…Further study has shown that heritability also plays a role in a disease disorder. For instance, heritability statistics demonstrate that genetic factors account for 75% to 80% of the variability perceived in susceptibility to attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and autism, schizophrenia, and bipolar disorder [22]. The statistics also show that genetic factors account for 35% to 50% in the case of major depression and alcohol addiction.…”

The philosophy of psychiatry and biologism

“…Even in the absence of any form of substance dualism we still need an irreducible psychological level of explanation. Marcella Rietschel argues in her commentary, contra Stier and Schramme, that mental disorders in actual fact are somatic disorders, as actual scientific insights show (Rietschel, 2014 ). According to Jan-Hendrik Heinrichs the terms “psychiatric disorder” and “neural defect” belong to different types of analysis and cannot be identified with or reduced to each other (Heinrichs, 2014 ).…”

The Philosophy of Psychiatry and Biologism

“…Even in the absence of any form of substance dualism we still need an irreducible psychological level of explanation. Marcella Rietschel argues in her commentary, contra Stier and Schramme, that mental disorders in actual fact are somatic disorders, as actual scientific insights show (Rietschel, 2014). According to Jan-Hendrik Heinrichs the terms "psychiatric disorder" and "neural defect" belong to different types of analysis and cannot be identified with or reduced to each other (Heinrichs, 2014).…”