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Mental disorder as a black box essentialist concept
1Institute for Health, Health Care Policy, and Aging Research, Rutgers-State University of New Jersey, USA. jcw2@columbia.edu
Journal of Abnormal Psychology
|August 31, 1999
Summary
The harmful dysfunction analysis (HDA) of mental disorder effectively explains disorder judgments and is supported by evolutionary foundations. This analysis clarifies the concept of natural function as scientific, not evaluative.
Area of Science:
- Evolutionary Psychology
- Philosophy of Psychiatry
- Conceptual Analysis
Background:
- Commentaries challenged the evolutionary foundations of the harmful dysfunction analysis (HDA) for mental disorder.
- The HDA defines mental disorder based on harmful dysfunction, integrating scientific and value judgments.
Purpose of the Study:
- To defend the harmful dysfunction analysis (HDA) against critiques.
- To clarify the concept of natural function within the HDA framework.
- To establish the scientific and factual nature of natural function in defining mental disorder.
Main Methods:
- Reanalysis of counterexamples presented by commentators.
- Philosophical defense of the HDA's explanatory power.
- Application of black box essentialist analysis to the concept of natural function.
Main Results:
- The HDA adequately explains disorder and nondisorder judgments.
- Commentators' counterexamples do not invalidate the HDA.
- Alternative explanations proposed by commentators are insufficient.
- The concept of natural function is demonstrated as factual and scientific.
Conclusions:
- The harmful dysfunction analysis remains a robust framework for understanding mental disorder.
- The concept of natural function is a scientifically valid basis for disorder classification.
- Further clarification of natural function strengthens the evolutionary perspective on mental disorder.