Cover of: Disease, Human Norm, and Human Diversity in Neuropsychiatry
Ludger Tebartz van Elst

Disease, Human Norm, and Human Diversity in Neuropsychiatry

Section: Articles
Volume 4 (2017) / Issue 2, pp. 143-159 (17)
Published 16.08.2018
DOI 10.1628/ptsc-2017-0003
  • article PDF
  • Free Content
  • 10.1628/ptsc-2017-0003
Summary
ifferent meanings of the concept of normality will be presented. I will briefly discuss if or not there is a generally accepted concept of what a disease is. Then I will address the definition of what a psychiatric disorder is. Based on the example of autism, I will finally illustrate that phenomenologically identical medical syndromes can be regarded as well as a norm variant, as a psychological disorder, and as a psychiatric disease. This comprehensive perspective on the diverse phenomena of body and mental functioning illustrates that many if not most of the present psychiatric diagnoses cannot be considered as names of diseases, but as umbrella terms for a wide range of differently caused mental phenomena.