Understanding understanding in psychiatry

Gough, Joseph

Abstract

Originally put forward to defend history from the encroachment of physics, the distinction between understanding and explanation was built into the foundations of Karl Jaspers’ ‘phenomenological’ psychiatry, and it is revised, used and defended by many still working in that tradition. On the face of it, this is rather curious. I examine what this notion of ‘understanding’ amounts to, why it entered and remains influential in psychiatry, and what insights for contemporary psychiatry are buried in the notion. I argue that it is unhelpfully associated with the view that the mental is epistemologically and methodologically autonomous, but that it nevertheless highlights an important lacuna in many views of psychiatry and the scientific study of humans more generally.

Citation

Gough, J. (2023). Understanding understanding in psychiatry. History of Psychiatry, 34(3), 249-261. https://doi.org/10.1177/0957154x231163275

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Mar 24, 2023
• Online Publication Date: Apr 24, 2023
• Publication Date: 2023-09
• Deposit Date: Feb 13, 2024
• Publicly Available Date: Feb 13, 2024
• Journal: History of Psychiatry
• Print ISSN: 0957-154X
• Electronic ISSN: 1740-2360
• Publisher: SAGE Publications
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 34
• Issue: 3
• Pages: 249-261
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0957154x231163275
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/2254397