RESEARCH IN PSYCHOPATHOLOGY - EPISTEMOLOGIC ISSUES

Etiologic research in psychiatry relies on an objectivist epistemology positing that human cognition is specified by the ''reality'' of the outer world, which consists of a totality of mind-independent objects. Truth is considered as some sort of correspondence relation between w ords and external objects, and mind as a mirror of nature. In our view , this epistemology considerably impedes etiologic research. Objectivi st epistemology has been recently confronting a growing critique from diverse scientific fields. Alternative models in neurosciences (neuron al selection), artificial intelligence (connectionism), and developmen tal psychology (developmental biodynamics) converge in viewing living organisms as self-organizing systems, In this perspective, the organis m is not specified by the outer world, but enacts its environment by s electing relevant domains of significance that constitute its world. T he distinction between mind and body or organism and environment is a matter of observational perspective. These models from empirical scien ces are compatible with fundamental tenets of philosophical phenomenol ogy and hermeneutics. They imply consequences for research in psychopa thology: symptoms cannot be viewed as disconnected manifestations of d iscrete localized brain dysfunctions. Psychopathology should therefore focus on how the person's self-coherence is maintained and on the und erstanding and empirical investigation of the systemic laws that gover n neurodevelopment and the organization of human cognition. Copyright (C) 1995 by W.B. Saunders Company