S31.01 - Western postmodern thinking and psychopathology: Dangers and chances

Abstract

In modern psychiatry a main task is the exploration and explanation of the nature of mental disorders and its treatment. Post-modernity with its change of paradigms opens up new perspectives in diagnosis and treatment of mental disorders. Not only the nature of disorders but also the narratives creating our world of illnesses and the dialogue with the patient suffering from it becomes more and more the main interest of medical and psychotherapeutic measures. It is no longer the disorder itself but the human being suffering from it which will be the main target of diagnostic and therapeutic procedures. The human being is not only a disorder producing physico-psycho-social apparatus. In postmodern medicine the human being cannot be longer considered as a machine which can be explored and repaired; it is much more the expression of active and reactive processes. As individuums we are not only complex machines reacting to external and internal stimuli; we are on the contrary “doers”, “makers” and “creators”. As cosmopoets we constitute and design our world and ourselves. But this creation is not a creation out of nothing. Our patients suffering from mental disorders are thrown in a world not of their choosing; but nevertheless they are able to (re)construct their life and their narratives. As psychiatrists, it is our duty not only to analyze the conditions and nature of mental disorders but also to enter into a dialogue with the human being suffering from the disorders’ nature and its narratives.