Theories of psychopathology: Potential to promote clinical science, empowerment, and justice.

Abstract

This invited commentary evaluates eight target articles that offer ambitious theoretical frameworks intended to advance psychopathology research. We discuss their consideration of the perspectives and priorities of treatment-seekers, including respect for and promotion of individuals' agency and self-determination; their positioning of individuals within dynamic social systems and their consideration of interventions beyond the individual level; their assumptions and proposals about the relationship between psychological and biological concepts and phenomena, relative to the reductionism that has been dominant but unsuccessful in the psychopathology literature in recent decades; and their implications for clinical care and for individual and community health. Despite some overlapping features, the articles cover very different ground and offer different challenges to the status quo, which has seen strikingly slow progress for decades. None of the proposed theories is comprehensive, but each has unique appeals; each has limitations, and each warrants consideration and development.

Prison or treatment? Gender, racial, and ethnic inequities in mental health care utilization and criminal justice history among incarcerated persons with borderline and antisocial personality disorders.

“…Some scholars also have expressed concern that modern conceptualizations of personality disorders as enduring, intrinsic patterns of dysfunction disregard sociopolitical and contextual factors that contribute to the manifestation of symptoms, particularly among individuals with marginalized social identities (Rodriguez-Seijas et al, 2023). Developing empowering and equitable pathways to treatment for persons affected by personality disorders, particularly within carceral settings, will therefore require updated theory that considers system-level contributions to impairment and has the potential to inspire structural interventions (Diehl et al, 2023).…”