A Nice game of Minecraft
Philosophical flaws underpinning UK depression guideline nosology
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12692108 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Susan Mcpherson (0000-0002-9478-9932, Health and Social Care, University of Essex, Colchester CO4 3SQ, UK, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2019 |
| Volume | 46 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 162-165 |
| Publication date | 2019-07-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Medical Humanities (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1468-215X • E-ISSN: 1473-4265 |
| Publisher | BMJ (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1136/medhum-2019-011658 |
| PMID | 31263062 |
| OpenAlex | W2955137959 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 11 |
Categorising mental disorders for purposes of diagnosis, research and practice has historically been justified on philosophical terms as a pragmatic activity; categories which have been subject to wide-ranging philosophical critique have been defended on the grounds that they serve as heuristic devices providing loose representations of shared experiences, not labels for real structures. Hence the most recent Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (V.5) and International Classification of Diseases (V.11) both group persistent forms of depression together. However, the UK National Institute for Health and Care Excellence has delineated certain subclassifications of persistent depression in its new guideline, which grossly distorts the phenomenology of depression. This approach commits a fundamental philosophical error in conflating absence of knowledge with knowledge of absence. In this sense, the new guideline appears to be engaging in an activity akin to the digital game Minecraft, in which the craft of building structures from units of construction is largely divorced from the laws of physics. The risk of ignoring these philosophical errors and making false claims about scientific plausibility is that the guideline recommendations inevitably represent a highly distorted phenomenology of depression and will be of very little value to patients or practitioners looking for guidance on best possible treatment options
Acknowledgement · Epistemology · Excellence · Guideline · Mental health · Nice · Nosology · Phenomenology (philosophy · Psychiatry · Computer Science · Medicine · Mental Health and Psychiatry · Philosophy · Psychology · Schizophrenia research and treatment · Treatment of Major Depression
| Highly cited | No |
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