VALUES IN MENTAL AND MEDICAL DISORDER CONCEPTS: THEIR PRESENCE IS NOT
THE POINT, BEING AWARE OF THEM IS
Abstract
Both in medicine and in psychiatry, it’s essential to thoroughly
identify the cases in which it is necessary to intervene
therapeutically, and justify a sick leave or make forensic
interpretations, among others. Therefore, it is important to find a
general concept and definition for medical and psychiatric disorders.
Boorse, develops one of the most widespread models of medical disorder
that aspired to be value-free and that was based in medical dysfunction.
But values appear implicitly or explicitly with a deeper analysis of
this concept. On the other hand, there is the overtly value laden (harm)
component that has been used in the definition of disorder, defended as
essential by several authors over the time, once symptoms and their
consequences (disability, distress) have been considered as a priority
in medicine. In this article, we intend to review, through a conceptual
analysis, the proximity between the concepts of mental and physical
disorders regarding the presence of values, and to propose a way to deal
with the different kinds of values that might be present. It is
concluded that values are present in the main concepts that have been
used to define medical or psychiatric disorder. What is essential is to
understand what is descriptive and what is value and to try to avoid
moral values.