Health Sciences 4091A/B Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Mental Health Professional, Anxiety Disorder, Reductionism
11 Dec 2016
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Reductionism: the idea that we can and ought to replace one vocabulary (set of concepts or theory) with a secondary vocabulary (set of concepts or theory) that is more primary. In psychiatry, biological reductionism affords explanations of phenomena occurring at several levels (ex. social;, psychological) that are sought at a single level (biology) Biomedical psychiatry involves the use of science and technology to develop causal accounts of distress, which is formulated in terms of illness categories, such as schizophrenia. In keeping with its reductionistic assumptions, biomedical psychiatry perceives mental distress according to explanations that are biochemical and neurophysiological in their nature. In biomedical psychiatry, disease is assumed to be present, and there exists a favouring of mind-body dualism. Many individuals who qualify for a diagnosis of an anxiety disorder nevertheless do not seek professional treatment. Epidemiological studies that psychiatrically evaluate representative samples of community members are requires to find out the true prevalence rates of psychiatric disorders.
