A Basis in Science for the Subjective Mind in Psychiatry

During much of the twentieth century, psychoanalysis was dominant in psychiatry as the accepted way of understanding and treating mental disorders. In the last decades, dissatisfaction with this subjective and putatively... [ view full abstract ]

During much of the twentieth century, psychoanalysis was dominant in psychiatry as the accepted way of understanding and treating mental disorders. In the last decades, dissatisfaction with this subjective and putatively “unscientific” discipline led to the replacement of psychoanalysis by the more “scientific” biological approach to these disorders. This notion of reduction of mental disorders to observable biology is based on a philosophy of science school called “Logical Positivism” or “Empiricism” which is the idea that one can only speak scientifically about what one can objectively measure. Understanding the human mind has dropped out of psychiatry and replaced by understanding the human brain.
However, the “science” may be more apparent than real. There is a basis to think that re-consideration of the subjective mind may actually be scientific and in fact necessary for the proper understanding of mental disorders. A discipline in philosophy of science underpinning such an idea would be American Pragmatism, which encompasses the objectivity of Logical Positivism but also admits the subjective mind of the scientific observer as a necessary component of scientific data. There are also data from that most scientific discipline, physics, which suggests the necessity of consideration of the subjectivity of those who have mental disorders.
There are experiments in quantum physics that suggest consciousness is a fundamental property of the universe and that the brain may act like an antenna/amplifier system to focus and modulate consciousness to form a subjective human mind. As one example, experiments concerning entangled particles which demonstrate simultaneous movements across great distances seem best explained by their connection through the consciousness of the experimenter. Therefore, “science” supports consideration of the subjective mind as necessary to a complete understanding of mental disorders.