TOWARDS AN EPISTEMOLOGY OF NEUROPSYCHIATRIC CONSTRUCTS

The purpose of this article is to present an epistemological analysis of neuropsychiatric constructs. We characterize the concept of academic neuropsychiatry: a theoretical and research-based field of interdisciplinary work which is concerned with the full scope of psychopathological phenomena and its relationship with the neurosciences. Then, we define clinical neuropsychiatry as a practical field of medicine operating in the borderline of neurology and psychiatry to care for patients with neuropsychiatric conditions. To explain the logic of neuropsychiatric constructs, we define neurological constructs as well as psychiatric constructs, leading us to conceptualize and to distinguish between the neurological and the psychological, by means of a clarification of seven critical points of debate: structural lesions, physiologic abnormalities, causal agents, behavior, psychological functions, phenomenal experience, and clinical patterns. We discuss the traditional logic of brain-behavior relationships as well as the need for closer academic feedback between neuroscientific research and clinical practice. We argue that some neuropsychiatric cases are well explained by the current science of brain-behavior relationships, but many other cases located at the boundaries of this science require a transdisciplinary approach, including the study of sociocultural contexts and biographic timeline