Defining Mental Disorder: Jerome Wakefield and His Critics(Philosophical Psychopathology)

Philosophers discuss Jerome Wakefield's influential view of mental disorder as "harmful dysfunction," with detailed responses from Wakefield himself. Philosophers discuss Jerome Wakefield's influential view of mental disorder as "harmful dysfunction," with detailed responses from Wakefield himself. One of the most pressing theoretical problems of psychiatry is the definition of mental disorder. Jerome Wakefield's proposal that mental disorder is "harmful dysfunction" has been both influential and widely debated; philosophers have been notably skeptical about it. This volume provides the first book-length collection of responses by philosophers to Wakefield's harmful dysfunction analysis (HDA), offering a survey of philosophical critiques as well as extensive and detailed replies by Wakefield himself.

Table of Contents:
Introduction ix Denis Forest and Luc Faucher Wakefield Critiques: Introductory Comments xxix Jerome Wakefield I On Conceptual Analysis 1 DSM in the Light of HDA (and Conversely) 3 Steeves Demazeux 2 From Ribot and Dupré to Spitzer and RDoC: Does the Harmful Dysfunction Analysis Possess Historical Explanatory Power? Reply to Steeves Demazeux 27 Jerome Wakefield 3 Facts, Facts, Facts: HD Analysis Goes Factual 47 Luc Faucher 4 Do the Empirical Facts Support the Harmful Dysfunction Analysis? Reply to Luc Faucher 71 Jerome Wakefield 5 Against the Disorder/Nondisorder Dichotomy 97 Leen De Vreese 6 Do Clinicians Understand the Harmful Dysfunction Analysis of Mental Disorder? Reply to Leen De Vreese 109 Jerome Wakefield 7 Doing without “Disorder” in the Study of Psychopathology 123 Harold Kincaid 8 Quinian Qualms, or Does Psychiatry Really Need the Harmful Dysfunction Analysis? Reply to Harold Kincaid 133 Jerome Wakefield II The Demarcation Problem 9 Psychiatric Disorders and the Imperfect Community: A Nominalist HDA 157 Peter Zachar 10 Can a Nonessentialist Neo-Empiricist Analysis of Mental Disorder Replace the Harmful Dysfunction Analysis? Reply to Peter Zachar 177 Jerome Wakefield III The Dysfunction Component 11 Is the Dysfunction Component of the “Harmful Dysfunction Analysis” Stipulative? 199 Maël Lemoine 12 Is the Harmful Dysfunction Analysis Descriptive or Stipulative, and Is the HDA or BST the Better Naturalist Account of Dysfunction? Reply to Maël Lemoine 213 Jerome Wakefield 13 Function and Dysfunction 251 Dominic Murphy 14 Can Causal Role Functions Yield Objective Judgments of Medical Dysfunction and Replace the Harmful Dysfunction Analysis’s Evolutionary Component? Reply to Dominic Murphy 267 Jerome Wakefield 15 Do the Works of Carl Craver or Marcel Weber Explain How Causal Role Functions Can Provide Objective Medical Judgments of Dysfunction? Supplementary Reply to Dominic Murphy 317 Jerome Wakefield 16 The Developmental Plasticity Challenge to Wakefield’s View 335 Justin Garson 17 Does Developmental Plasticity Pose a Challenge to the Harmful Dysfunction Analysis? Reply to Justin Garson 353 Jerome Wakefield 18 Biological Function Hierarchies and Indeterminacy of Dysfunction: Supplementary Reply to Justin Garson 385 Jerome Wakefield 19 Harmful Dysfunction and the Science of Salience: Adaptations and Adaptationism 397 Philip Gerrans 20 Are Cognitive Neuroscience and the Harmful Dysfunction Analysis Competitors or Allies? Reply to Philip Gerrans 415 Jerome Wakefield 21 Autistic Spectrum, Normal Variation, and Harmful Dysfunction Denis Forest 433 22 Do the Challenges of Autism and Neurodiversity Pose an Objection to the Harmful Dysfunction Analysis? Reply to Denis Forest 449 Jerome Wakefield 23 Naturalism and Dysfunction 469 Tim Thornton 24 Is Indeterminacy of Biological Function an Objection to the Harmful Dysfunction Analysis? Reply to Tim Thornton 485 Jerome Wakefield IV The Harmful Component 25 Harmless Dysfunctions and the Problem of Normal Variation Andreas De Block and Jonathan Sholl 495 26 Can the Harmful Dysfunction Analysis Distinguish Problematic Normal Variation from Disorder? Reply to Andreas De Block and Jonathan Sholl 511 Jerome Wakefield 27 On Harm 537 Rachel Cooper 28 Must Social Values Play a Role in the Harm Component of the Harmful Dysfunction Analysis? Reply to Rachel Cooper 553 Jerome Wakefield 29 Are There Naturally Selected Disorders? Supplementary Reply to Rachel Cooper 577 Jerome Wakefield Contributors 593 Index 595

About the Author :
Luc Faucher is Professor in the Philosophy Department at the University of Quebec in Montreal. Denis Forest is Professor of Philosophy of Science in the Department of Philosophy at Paris 1 Pantheon-Sorbonne and Member of the IHPST (Institute of History and Philosophy of Science and Technique), Paris.

Review :
“Defining Mental Disorder is an extremely thought-provoking volume of work that serves to elucidate a number of under-discussed issues in Wakefield’s philosophy. The chapters contributed by critics provide a comprehensive taxonomy of a variety of philosophical issues raised by Wakefield’s work, while Wakefield himself performs admirably in defending and strengthening his influential view. I recommend it wholeheartedly to students and researchers in philosophy of medicine who draw on Wakefield’s analysis in their work, and to philosophically interested clinicians and empirical researchers who wish to gain a deeper understanding of underlying philosophical issues.” —Philosophy of Medicine