The Epistemology of Psychiatry

Abstract

Psychiatry (the old trade of ‘alienism’) is a new discipline. It was constructed during the 19th century under the aegis of medicine. Like all historical events, its foundation was assisted by contemporary assumptions, aspirations and a myth of origin. ‘Psychiatry’ presented itself as a branch of medicine seeking scientifically to explain the causes of objective phenomena and facts called ‘mental diseases’ (and on the basis of such new knowledge) to develop rational cures...