Mind and brain in psychiatric treatment

Psychological and biological components of psychiatric illness must be integrated to avoid the perils of reductionism in diagnosis and treatment. With the decline of dualism, a number of creative thinkers have conceptualized the mind-body problem in a manner that values perspectives derived from psychoanalytic thinking as well as from the neurosciences. Similarly, modern studies of the etiology and pathogenesis of major psychiatric disorders suggest that only through a sophisticated synthesis of psychosocial and genetic/biochemical points of view can causation be comprehensively understood. In light of this accumulating knowledge, the author concludes that treatment must be informed by psychotherapeutic approaches as well as by pharmacotherapy.