No, mental disorders are not adjectives.

Sometimes we fall into the error of believing that the concepts of psychology and psychiatry define us.

Psychology and psychiatry are often criticized for reducing people to labels. That is, for trying to explain what makes us unique, the mind and one's personality, through numbers, statistical trends and relatively rigid categories. relatively rigid categories.

Of course, if we look to the past it is easy to see the consequences of what lack of empathy and humane treatment can do to psychiatry and the scientific study of behavior: forced lobotomies, crowding into psychiatric centers that could hardly be called such....

However, neither in psychology nor in medicine is it necessary to confuse the person with his or her mental illnesses or problems in order to work in these fields. Neither mental disorders are adjectives Neither the function of psychology or medicine is to translate our essence by means of a diagnosis.

The use of labels in psychology

It is necessary to clarify something: the use of well delimited categories (or as well delimited as possible) in psychology, such as psychopathy or intelligence, for example, is not something that is bad in itself, is not something that is bad in itself.

Psychology tries to explain scientifically a part of reality and, to do so, it must use concrete concepts, it must use concrete conceptsthat can be understood by the entire community of scientists in that area of knowledge regardless of their cultural context.

In other words, in science it is necessary to avoid ambiguous definitions as much as possible; it is necessary to speak with propriety. Depression cannot be defined as "a state of mental negativity in which vital pessimism is transmitted", but to understand what it consists of, it is necessary to learn a series of very specific symptoms established by scientific consensus. established by scientific consensus.

In other words, psychology works on the basis of concepts that tell us about the characteristics of how we think, feel and act from the point of view of an external observer who compares different cases with each other and reaches conclusions about how a group of individuals think, feel and act. The task of psychology is not to define that which exists only in a person, but to discover the logics of how we think, feel and act.The task of psychology is not to define that which exists only in a person, but to discover the logics that make it possible to explain the mental and behavioral mechanisms of a multitude.

That means that a psychologist does not treat a person as if he or she were totally and absolutely unique, but works from the principles and generalities about the human mind and behavior that he or she knows. In fact, otherwise his work could be done by anyone who claims a special sensitivity to being "one human soul touching another human soul".

Psychology is not metaphysics

The problem comes when either patients or psychologists and psychiatrists themselves believe that the scientific categories used in psychology and psychiatry are direct reflections of the identity of the patient. are direct reflections of people's identity.. That is, when the names of mental disorders, personality traits or symptoms become synonymous with the essence of people (whatever the latter may be).

It is one thing to agree that out of pragmatism we will work on the basis of well-defined and well-defined concepts, and another to assume that the whole mental life of someone is summarized in a diagnostic chart or in the result of a personality test. This last option is not only not part of the normal functioning of psychology, but it is also an overreach.

The error lies in the fact that, on occasions, the belief is held that the task of psychology is to to capture the identity and essence of people, to tell us who we are..

However, as much as the etymology of the term "psychology" is what it is, the purpose of this scientific and interventional field is much more modest than that of revealing the essence of everyone; that task is reserved for metaphysicians.

Psychology is content to be useful in providing concrete solutions to material needs: to improve the objective conditions of people's lives, to provide models capable of better foreseeing how groups act, etc.

That is why the idea of mental disorders and mental disorders, as opposed to adjectives, only exist because they are useful, only exist because they are useful within the web of coordinated efforts that is mental health and behavioral science, and for nothing else. They are concepts that make sense in the clinical setting and in certain branches of science to respond to specific problems.

There are no essences in mental health

Moreover, it is worth remembering that in psychology almost all mental processes are understood as part of a cycle that links the person with his or her environment: we act according to what is happening inside our own organism, but we do not act according to what is happening inside our own organism. What happens inside our organism also depends on what happens around us..

Not even from a scientific perspective can a mental disorder be understood as something that begins and ends in oneself, as if it were part of something intrinsic to one's being. Each person maintains a real time connection with his or her surroundings and could not exist (neither alive nor dead) apart from it.

This idea, by the way, would not only be good to keep in mind when thinking about diagnostic concepts, but also when thinking about terms that are indeed used as adjectives beyond mental health.

Disorders as labels

Asking a mental health specialist to capture the essence of a patient through a diagnosis is like asking a gardener to express the rosiness of the rose through pruning.

Scientific categories such as those used to explain mental disorders only make sense as part of an effort to provide solutions to very specific needs. only make sense as part of an effort to provide solutions to very specific, defined, materially based needs, and not as labels that can be used to summarize the full complexity of an individual's personality.They do not make sense as labels that can be used to summarize the full complexity of a single individual's personality. That is not their function.