ENVIRONMENTAL FAILURE OPPRESSION IS THE ONLY CAUSE OF PSYCHOPATHOLOGY

The present paper intends to clear the way to considering all psychopa thology as responses to failures in the human environment by examining three common sources of error in scientific reasoning about psychopat hology: (i) the false identification of ''biological considerations'' with the sub-interest of organic pathology, (ii) the idea that a perso n could be genetically predisposed or vulnerable to psychopathology, ( iii) the failure to distinguish between causal forms of explanation an d explanation based upon connections of meaning and significance. For convenience, the omnibus term ''environmental failure-oppression'' (EF O) is introduced to refer to the totality of possible failures in the human environment.