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An Empirical Prototypical Approach to the Definition of Psychiatric Illness

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 August 2018

Juan E. Mezzich
Juan E. Mezzich*
Affiliation:
University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh PA, USA
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Extract

The facts that neither the International Classification of Diseases (ICD) nor any other major standard diagnostic system have offered a full definition of psychiatric illness and that earnest definitional attempts reported in the literature (e.g. Spitzer & Endicott, 1978) have not received wide acceptance, have led distinguished nosologists (e.g. Kendell, 1985) to suggest that all we can say about psychiatric classifications is that they are classifications of kinds of problems which psychiatrists currently deal with. However, one immediate difficulty with this characterisation is that it is based on what psychiatrists do, when in fact psychiatric problems are dealt with also by other professionals of various types and levels of training. Another difficulty is that it implies that there is not even an approximate common denominator or core concept underlying the various forms of psychiatric disorder listed in the ICD or other standard diagnostic systems.

Type
I. Nosological Aspects
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 154 , Issue S4: Psychiatric Diagnosis: Nosological, Biological and Psychological Aspects , May 1989 , pp. 42 - 46
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal College of Psychiatrists 

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