Dialogues in Philosophy
Mental and Neuro Sciences
Dialogues in Philosophy, Mental and Neuro Sciences
The official journal of Crossing Dialogues
Volume 7, Issue 1 (June 2014)
ORIGINAL ARTICLES
Epistemological reflections about the crisis of the DSM-5 and the revolutionary potential of the RDoC project
Massimiliano Aragona
This paper tests the predictions of an epistemological model that considered the DSM psychiatric classification (in the neopositivist and neo-Kraepelinian shape introduced by the DSM-III) as a scientific paradigm in crisis. As predicted, the DSM-5 did not include revolutionary proposals in its basic structure.
In particular, the possibility of a dimensional revolution has not occurred and early proposals of etiopathogenic diagnoses were not implemented due to lack of specific knowledge in that field. However, conceiving the DSM-5 as a bridge between the present phenomenally based operational diagnostic criteria and the neuro-cognitively based RDoC criteria introduces an internal tension into the system. It is expected that a liberalization of the research criteria will occur, the DSM operational criteria being only one possible way to select research subjects.
In particular, the possibility of a dimensional revolution has not occurred and early proposals of etiopathogenic diagnoses were not implemented due to lack of specific knowledge in that field. However, conceiving the DSM-5 as a bridge between the present phenomenally based operational diagnostic criteria and the neuro-cognitively based RDoC criteria introduces an internal tension into the system. It is expected that a liberalization of the research criteria will occur, the DSM operational criteria being only one possible way to select research subjects.
Keywords:
philosophy of psychiatry, nosography, psychiatric classification, mental disorders
Dial Phil Ment Neuro Sci 2014; 7(1): 11-20
Invited article
Received on May 29, 2014
Firstly published online on June 15, 2014
Received on May 29, 2014
Firstly published online on June 15, 2014