The Case for Transdisciplinarity in Mental Health Promotion

Abstract

This article discusses historical, epistemological and etymological features associated with the construction of the notions of analysis, method and – principally – discipline in the mental health field, building the argument that mental health-disease is a complex dynamic object. It goes on to evaluate critically certain logical and epistemological aspects of established schemata towards a definition of disciplinarity and correlates (multidisciplinarity, pluridisciplinarity, interdisciplinarity, transdisciplinarity). A more precise definition of the concept of transdisciplinarity is proposed from a pragmatic perspective, exploring its potential for mental health promotion. In conclusion, the author contends that, in order to respond to the challenges of mental health-illness-care today, we must rely on a renewed form of encyclopaedism constructed collectively, making the process of scientific knowledge-production in the field of mental health epistemologically more rigorous as much as socially and politically-oriented.