Den dualistiske misforståelse i nutidens psykiatri

Abstract

Lundin Jensen, G. (2003). The dualistic misunderstanding in contemporary psychiatry. Nordisk Psykologi, 55, 265–285.

This article presents the observation that rather than complementing each other's fields of expertise, there seems to be an unfortunate antagonistic attitude in contemporary psychiatry, particularly between psychodynamic therapists and researchers on one hand and biological scientists of psychopathology on the other. In an attempt to illuminate this conflict, the mental illness, borderline personality disorder, is being used as an exemplification of the problem. Possible reasons for the antagonism between paradigms are briefly investigated, and by reviewing some present-day contributions to neurobiology and to the mind-brain problem, it is suggested that there are no longer, if there ever were, any sound reasons for keeping the areas of psycho- dynamics and neurobiology so completely separated. Furthermore it is proposed that, if the level of psychiatric competence within clinical as well as research settings is to be promoted in earnest, the time has come to integrate these seemingly diverse perspectives.