Scholars question the extent to which current psychiatric classification systems are inadequate for diagnosis, treatment, and research of mental disorders and offer suggestions for improvement. In this volume, leading philosophers of psychiatry examine psychiatric classification systems, including the
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), asking whether current systems are sufficient for effective diagnosis, treatment, and research. Doing so, they take up the question of whether mental disorders are natural kinds, grounded in something in the outside world. Psychiatric categories based on natural kinds should group phenomena in such a way that they are subject to the same type of causal explanations and respond similarly to the same type of causal interventions. When these categories do not evince such groupings, there is reason to revise existing classifications.
The contributors all question current psychiatric classifications systems and the assumptions on which they are based. They differ, however, as to why and to what extent the categories are inadequate and how to address the problem. Topics discussed include taxometric methods for identifying natural kinds, the error and bias inherent in DSM categories, and the complexities involved in classifying such specific mental disorders as "oppositional defiance disorder" and pathological gambling.
ContributorsGeorge Graham, Nick Haslam, Allan Horwitz, Harold Kincaid, Dominic Murphy, Jeffrey Poland, Nancy Nyquist Potter, Don Ross, Dan Stein, Jacqueline Sullivan, Serife Tekin, Peter Zachar
學者們質疑當前精神病學分類系統在精神障礙的診斷、治療和研究方面的不足之處，並提出改進建議。
在本書中，領先的精神病學哲學家們檢視精神病學分類系統，包括《精神障礙診斷與統計手冊》（DSM），並探討當前系統是否足以進行有效的診斷、治療和研究。在此過程中，他們提出了精神障礙是否為自然類型的問題，這些類型是否根植於外部世界的某些事物。基於自然類型的精神病學分類應該以某種方式將現象分組，使其受到相同類型的因果解釋，並對相同類型的因果干預作出類似的反應。當這些分類未能顯示出這種分組時，就有理由修訂現有的分類。
所有貢獻者都質疑當前的精神病學分類系統及其所基於的假設。然而，他們對於這些分類為何以及在多大程度上不充分，以及如何解決這一問題的看法有所不同。討論的主題包括識別自然類型的分類方法、DSM分類中固有的錯誤和偏見，以及對於像「對立違抗障礙」和病態賭博等特定精神障礙的分類所涉及的複雜性。
貢獻者包括：George Graham、Nick Haslam、Allan Horwitz、Harold Kincaid、Dominic Murphy、Jeffrey Poland、Nancy Nyquist Potter、Don Ross、Dan Stein、Jacqueline Sullivan、Serife Tekin、Peter Zachar。
Harold Kincaid is Professor in the School of Economics and Director of the Research Unit in Behavioural Economics and Neuroeconomics at the University of Cape Town. He is the coeditor of
Distributed Cognition and the Will: Individual Volition and Social Context and
What Is Addiction? (both published by the MIT Press).
Jacqueline A. Sullivan is Assistant Professor in the Department of Philosophy at Western University, London, Ontario, and a member of the Rotman Institute of Philosophy at the University of Western Ontario. She is the author of multiple recent journal articles on topics in philosophy of neuroscience.
哈羅德·金凱德（Harold Kincaid）是開普敦大學經濟學院的教授，並擔任行為經濟學與神經經濟學研究單位的主任。他是《分佈式認知與意志：個體意志與社會背景》（Distributed Cognition and the Will: Individual Volition and Social Context）和《什麼是成癮？》（What Is Addiction?）的共同編輯（兩本書均由麻省理工學院出版社出版）。
雅克琳·A·沙利文（Jacqueline A. Sullivan）是安大略省倫敦的西方大學哲學系的助理教授，並且是西安大略大學羅特曼哲學研究所的成員。她是多篇近期神經科學哲學主題期刊文章的作者。
