VESTERINEN Tuomas

Explaining Mental Disorders with Kinds

In my dissertation, I aim to clarify the classification of mental disorders by analysing the semantics of disorder terms and the mechanisms that cause the disorders. I argue that folk psychological disorder terms refer to natural kinds that can be explained by a combination of social and natural homeostatic causal mechanisms (cf. Richard Boyd). By studying mental disorders, I hope to draw more general conclusions concerning natural kinds and their use in explaining social and natural phenomena.

I am working on four papers that highlight the classification of mental disorders from different angles. First, I am working on a paper in which I argue that humans have a natural dysfunction detecting mechanism that enables us to intuitively lock the reference of severe disorder terms. Second, I analyse Ian Hacking’s looping effect and its relation to causal mechanistic explanation. Third, I intend to write a paper in splitting and lumping concepts in order to accommodate the mechanisms that cause mental disorders. Fourth, I aim to write a paper on the failures to use evolution in explaining mental dysfunctions. In support of my arguments, I provide empirical evidence based on anthropological and psychological studies.