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This page is an AI-assisted Turkish summary of the study presented at the 26th World Congress of Psychiatry. The study belongs to the presenting authors; please refer to the original source when citing it.

EV0660

Beyond reductionism: historical patterns and clinical consequences of overlooking psychological meaning in psychiatry

BEYOND REDUCTIONISM: HISTORICAL PATTERNS AND CLINICAL CONSEQUENCES OF NEGLECTING PSYCHOLOGICAL MEANING IN PSYCHIATRY

The history of psychiatry reveals a recurring pattern of conceptual narrowing during periods dominated by biological explanations, resulting in diagnostic uncertainty, fragmented care, and reduced therapeutic engagement.

The study aimed to identify recurring historical patterns in the prioritization of biological explanations in psychiatry and to examine their clinical consequences. The method involved a structured conceptual analysis covering major paradigm shifts from moral treatment to psychoanalysis and contemporary neurobiological approaches, identifying recurring shifts in explanatory emphasis. The historical trajectory was presented in five phases: moral treatment (the late 18th and 19th centuries, centered on psychological and interpersonal dimensions), psychodynamic/psychoanalytic psychiatry (the late 19th to mid-20th century, centered on subjective experience), biological and psychopharmacological expansion (from the mid-20th century onward), operational diagnosis (the DSM-III era and beyond, with increased diagnostic consistency and the relegation of individualized psychological formulation to a secondary role), and contemporary psychiatry (an opportunity for integration). According to the authors, scientific and biological advances form a recurring pattern in which growing confidence in biological explanations leaves less room for meaning, context, subjective experience, and the patient's narrative, leading to clinical limitations and a renewed need for integrative approaches. The reported clinical consequences include diagnostic uncertainty, the limited explanatory and therapeutic value of purely biological models in functional and somatic disorders, fragmentation of care, and reduced therapeutic engagement. The poster contains no quantitative data or statistical analysis; it presents a conceptual framework. In conclusion, the problem is not scientific progress itself, but the assumption that a single level of explanation is sufficient for phenomena requiring understanding at multiple levels; reintegrating meaning, context, and subjective experience into scientifically grounded frameworks may strengthen diagnosis, the therapeutic relationship, and clinical care.

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