two common fallacies in critical psychology/psychiatry
There are two philosophical arguments one encounters again and again in critical psychology and critical psychiatry. They go like this: 1. "The diagnosis of autism and ADHD are based on the same circular logic as other psychiatric diagnoses. We decide that a certain set of problems should be called X. If you experience these problems, we say you “have X”. X is then regarded as an explanation for your problems, in the same way that having lung cancer would be an explanation for having a cough. But X is not an explanation of this sort at all. It is just a name—more like saying “coughing disorder” is the reason for your cough." 2. "[The Fonagy Report] simultaneously endorses two contradictory conceptions of diagnosis. Alongside the idea that diagnosis identifies a neurological condition, it acknowledges that “diagnosis is based on categories of symptoms rather than established biological mechanisms” and on judgements about their “severity, persistence and impact on functi...
