Meyer’s psychobiology

1. SOME ASPECTS OF THE MORAL BASIS OF DIAGNOSIS: The challenge of Meyer’s PsychobiologyD B DoubleNorfolk & Waveney Mental Health NHS FT & University of East Anglia

2. Meyer’s psychobiology • Adolf Meyer (1866-1950)

3. Meyer’s psychobiology • Adolf Meyer (1866-1950) • Professor, Johns Hopkins 1908-1941

4. Meyer’s psychobiology • Adolf Meyer (1866-1950) • Professor, Johns Hopkins 1908-1941 • “Dean of American psychiatry” first half of 20th century

5. Meyer’s psychobiology • Distinctively pragmatic and instrumental approach

6. Meyer’s psychobiology • Distinctively pragmatic and instrumental approach • “As a result of his efforts …, American psychiatrists began to ask, not "What is the name of this affliction?" but rather, "How is this man reacting and to what?” (Karl Menninger, The vital balance, 1963)

7. Commonsense psychiatry of Adolf Meyer • Mental disorders as disturbances of adaptation

8. Commonsense psychiatry of Adolf Meyer • Mental disorders as disturbances of adaptation • Less concerned with symptoms and disease than understanding the conditions of mental reactions

9. Commonsense psychiatry of Adolf Meyer • Mental disorders as disturbances of adaptation • Less concerned with symptoms and disease than understanding the conditions of mental reactions • The person as the essential setting for all medical thought

10. Commonsense psychiatry of Adolf Meyer • Recognition of inherent uncertainty in psychiatric and medical practice

11. Commonsense psychiatry of Adolf Meyer • Recognition of inherent uncertainty in psychiatric and medical practice • Psychobiology never really took hold as a systematic theory of psychiatry

12. Commonsense psychiatry of Adolf Meyer • Recognition of inherent uncertainty in psychiatric and medical practice • Psychobiology never really took hold as a systematic theory of psychiatry • “I should have made myself clear and in outspoken opposition, instead of a mild semblance of harmony”

13. Meyer’s views on psychiatric classification • Statistical manualfor the use of institutions for the insane (1918), American Medico-Psychological Association

14. Meyer’s views on psychiatric classification • Statistical manualfor the use of institutions for the insane (1918), American Medico-Psychological Association • “I have no use for the essentially ‘one person, one disease’ view”

15. Meyer’s views on psychiatric classification • Statistical manualfor the use of institutions for the insane (1918), American Medico-Psychological Association • “I have no use for the essentially ‘one person, one disease’ view” • “…statistics published…are a dead loss…and an annual ceremony misdirecting the interests of staff”

16. Neo-Kraepelinian approach • Disease entities in psychiatry - single morbid process

17. Neo-Kraepelinian approach • Disease entities in psychiatry - single morbid process • Dementia praecox and manic depressive illness

18. Neo-Kraepelinian approach • DSM-III introduced operational criteria to replace so-called vague, imprecise concepts

19. Neo-Kraepelinian approach • DSM-III introduced operational criteria to replace so-called vague, imprecise concepts • Associated with reaffirmation of implicit “medical model” with focus on brain mechanisms

20. Neo-Kraepelinian approach • DSM-III introduced operational criteria to replace so-called vague, imprecise concepts • Associated with reaffirmation of implicit “medical model” with focus on brain mechanisms and positivistic approach to science

21. A neo-Meyerian approach to diagnosis • Psychiatry should not abandon diagnosis, but recognise it for what it is

22. A neo-Meyerian approach to diagnosis • Psychiatry should not abandon diagnosis, but recognise it for what it is • Psychiatry should not be panicked by the unreliability of psychiatric diagnosis

23. A neo-Meyerian approach to diagnosis • Psychiatry should not abandon diagnosis, but recognise it for what it is • Psychiatry should not be panicked by the unreliability of psychiatric diagnosis • Psychiatry should avoid the reification of diagnostic concepts

24. (1) Psychiatry should not abandon diagnosis, but recognise it for what it is • Classification is justified as essential for scientific communication

25. (1) Psychiatry should not abandon diagnosis, but recognise it for what it is • Classification is justified as essential for scientific communication • Diagnosis is not only about identifying disease but also understanding reasons for action

26. (1) Psychiatry should not abandon diagnosis, but recognise it for what it is • Diagnosis as a means of attempting to manage individual clinical complexity

27. (1) Psychiatry should not abandon diagnosis, but recognise it for what it is • Diagnosis as a means of attempting to manage individual clinical complexity • Fuzzy boundaries between concrete syndromes

28. (1) Psychiatry should not abandon diagnosis, but recognise it for what it is • Diagnosis as a means of attempting to manage individual clinical complexity • Fuzzy boundaries between concrete syndromes • Lack of empirical evidence for “point of rarity”

29. (1) Psychiatry should not abandon diagnosis, but recognise it for what it is • Diagnosis as a means of attempting to manage individual clinical complexity • Fuzzy boundaries between concrete syndromes • Lack of empirical evidence for “point of rarity” • Mental disorders cannot be natural kinds

30. (2) Psychiatry should not be panicked by the unreliability of psychiatric diagnosis • "… assuredly an unreliable system must be invalid” (Robert Spitzer)

31. (2) Psychiatry should not be panicked by the unreliability of psychiatric diagnosis • "… assuredly an unreliable system must be invalid” (Robert Spitzer) • Rosenhan - psychiatric diagnosisis subjective and does not reflect inherent patient characteristics

32. (2) Psychiatry should not be panicked by the unreliability of psychiatric diagnosis • "…Reliability is paradoxical – attenuation paradox

33. (2) Psychiatry should not be panicked by the unreliability of psychiatric diagnosis • "…Reliability is paradoxical – attenuation paradox • Increasing internal consistency creates overly narrow measurement that will not assess construct optimally

34. (2) Psychiatry should not be panicked by the unreliability of psychiatric diagnosis • Diagnostic concepts are simply categories justified by clinical utility

35. (2) Psychiatry should not be panicked by the unreliability of psychiatric diagnosis • Diagnostic concepts are simply categories justified by clinical utility • Working concepts for clinicians

36. (2) Psychiatry should not be panicked by the unreliability of psychiatric diagnosis • Diagnostic concepts are simply categories justified by clinical utility • Working concepts for clinicians • Value-laden nature of diagnosis is not a sign of scientific deficiency but of its meaningful nature

37. (3) Psychiatry should avoid the reification of diagnostic concepts • Too easily assume a concept is an entity of some kind

38. (3) Psychiatry should avoid the reification of diagnostic concepts • Too easily assume a concept is an entity of some kind • Acts as justification for treatment

39. (3) Psychiatry should avoid the reification of diagnostic concepts • Too easily assume a concept is an entity of some kind • Acts as justification for treatment • "Very often the supposed disease back of it all is a myth and merely a self-protective term for an insufficient knowledge of the conditions of reaction"

40. (3) Psychiatry should avoid the reification of diagnostic concepts • Unobservable hypothetical construct

41. (3) Psychiatry should avoid the reification of diagnostic concepts • Unobservable hypothetical construct • Prototype or ideal type

42. (3) Psychiatry should avoid the reification of diagnostic concepts • Unobservable hypothetical construct • Prototype or ideal type • Idealised description of those aspects of concrete reality that interest us

43. Psychiatric diagnosis as a contested area • Neo-Kraepelinian vs. Neo-Meyerian

44. Psychiatric diagnosis as a contested area • Neo-Kraepelinian vs. Neo-Meyerian • WPA Institutional Program on Psychiatry for the Person

45. Psychiatric diagnosis as a contested area • Neo-Kraepelinian vs. Neo-Meyerian • WPA Institutional Program on Psychiatry for the Person • DH Finding a shared vision of how people’s mental health problems should be understood

46. Psychiatric diagnosis as a contested area • There is as much consensus for the neo-Meyerian paradigm as there is the neo-Kraepelinian orthodoxy