Exploring Different Understandings of the Nature of Mental Disorders

What is it about?

Most people tend to think that the most important thing about understanding mental disorders is whether they are biological or not. This paper seeks to move beyond that simple distinction to look at how exactly mental disorders are thought to be biologically caused. In particular, the paper looks at different ways in which we interpret the body's relationship to mental disorders, especially in terms of how mental health treatment and recovery are experienced by actual people.

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Photo by Matthew Ball on Unsplash

Photo by Matthew Ball on Unsplash

Why is it important?

Far too often overly simplistic, biological explanations of mental disorders are assumed to be the only really scientific sorts of understandings possible. However, in this paper we show how such explanations not only are incomplete (and sometimes seriously misleading), but also how believing that one's mental health struggles are really only biochemical conditions over which you have no control can actually have very detrimental effects for those struggling with mental health issues, particularly depression.