Situated Psychopathology

This article seeks to formulate a situated approach to mental disorder that overcomes some of the problems of contemporary diagnostic psychiatry. A framework is needed that aims to integrate neuroscientific knowledge about the brain and other aspects of the person with knowledge about the environment. Inspired by the work of researchers such as Thomas Fuchs, Jerome Wakefield, and Dorte Gannik, I articulate four basic principles for a theory of psychopathology as situated, which hopefully point in this direction. These principles state that a theory of psychopathology as situated is relational; that it needs a concept of ecosocial niches; that it has an externalist component; and that it sees the brain as a social organ. The article begins by providing a brief overview of some of the criticism that has recently been leveled at the expanding diagnostic psychiatry from neuroscientific and contextual approaches, and the whole point of integrating these in a situated approach to mental disorder is to find theoretical room for factors related to the brain, mind, and body of the person as well as for the adversities that people are exposed to in their lives.