How Should we Diagnose Psychiatric Disorders?

On several occasions I have published articles on the problem of psychiatric diagnostics. The wise science journalist Dr. Martin Hubert has taken on the topic in his new radio feature on Deutschlandfunk. On October 28, 2018, under the title “The Dubious Findings of Psychiatry” (in German), he discusses how valid the psychiatric diagnoses we have been dealing with in the clinic for decades are.

We hear the epigones of a new diagnostic system that is based on neurobiological findings (Research Domain Criteria, RDoC) to make diagnoses more valid. I come to word as one of the psychiatrists who have fundamental doubts about this system. The program is not only recommended to anyone interested in fundamental psychiatric issues, but also to those who wonder how a humanistic image of man can be reconciled with biological reductionism.