Ivana S. Markovà & Eric Chen

 

Research in psychopathology has tended to polarise between approaches that are either neurobiological on the one hand or social constructionist on the other. Currently, the neurobiological drive is particularly strong leading to a narrow and mechanistic conception of the nature of mental phenomena and underlying psychological processes.

Taking an original and epistemologically justified approach, German Berrios and his school of psychopathology argue that the foundations of psychopathology need to be understood as hybrid in nature, that is, in the sense that deeply incongruous elements are jointly involved in the constitution and structure of psychopathology.

This epistemological position entails the development of new approaches to the study of psychopathology, drawing not only on the neurosciences but importantly on history, cultural studies, hermeneutics, philosophy among others, and taking a transdisciplinary approach to making sense of mental phenomena.

 

Keywords: Psychopathology, Hybrid structure, Meaning, Configurators, Epistemology, Concepts

 

 

Received on November 24, 2020

Accepted on November 25, 2020

Firstly published online on December 30, 2020