Original scientific paper

Complex mental disorders: representation, stability and explanation

Dominic Murphy

Abstract

This paper discusses the representation and explanation of relationships between phenomena that are important in psychiatric contexts. After a general discussion of complexity in the philosophy of science, I distinguish zooming-out approaches from zooming-in approaches. Zooming-out has to do with seeing complex mental illnesses as abstract models for the purposes of both explanation and reduction. Zooming-in involves breaking complex mental illnesses into simple components and trying to explain those components independently in terms of specific causes. Connections between existing practice and zooming-out are drawn, and zooming-in is criticised.

Keywords

explanation; mental illness; scientific representation; depression; reduction

Hrčak ID:

63454

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/63454

Publication date:

1.2.2010.

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