Uploaded June 2019 | Updated September 2026, 3 hours ago
A primary goal of psychiatric epistemology is to identify the properties of mental disorders that are relevant for developing effective interventions. Sources of information that individuate these properties include scientific research on mental disorders (e.g., clinical drug trials), data emerging from clinical settings (e.g., case studies), and first-person reports of those suffering from mental disorders or those who witness or observe such suffering. While dominant scientific frameworks in psychiatry recognize and rely on scientific and clinical data in their efforts to advance the science of mental disorders, they are not similarly committed to directly using the first-person perspectives of patients. More specifically, individuals who suffer from and are diagnosed with mental disorders have not systematically been made part of the scientific inquiry into mental disorders. One of the reasons for this is the worry that the inclusion of patients’ perspectives will compromise pscyhiatry’s aspirations to be an objective science. This talk responds to this challenge by drawing on feminist philosophy of science and makes a case for why the inclusion of patients’ perspectives is necessary for objectivity in psychiatry.
Şerife Tekin, University of Texas at San Antonio
May 16, 2019
Visit the Rotman website for more information on applications, events, project descriptions, and openings. rotman.uwo.ca
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A primary goal of psychiatric epistemology is to identify the properties of mental disorders that are relevant for developing effective interventions. Sources of information that individuate these properties include scientific research on mental disorders (e.g., clinical drug trials), data emerging from clinical settings (e.g., case studies), and first-person reports of those suffering from mental disorders or those who witness or observe such suffering. While dominant scientific frameworks in psychiatry recognize and rely on scientific and clinical data in their efforts to advance the science of mental disorders, they are not similarly committed to directly using the first-person perspectives of patients. More specifically, individuals who suffer from and are diagnosed with mental disorders have not systematically been made part of the scientific inquiry into mental disorders. One of the reasons for this is the worry that the inclusion of patients’ perspectives will compromise pscyhiatry’s aspirations to be an objective science. This talk responds to this challenge by drawing on feminist philosophy of science and makes a case for why the inclusion of patients’ perspectives is necessary for objectivity in psychiatry.
Şerife Tekin, University of Texas at San Antonio
May 16, 2019
Visit the Rotman website for more information on applications, events, project descriptions, and openings. rotman.uwo.ca
Follow The Rotman Institute on Twitter: twitter.com/rotmanphilo
Like The Rotman Institute on Facebook: facebook.com/rotmanphilosophy
Subscribe to our channel: youtube.com/user/rotmanphilosophy
