Mental disorders are somatic disorders, a comment on M. Stier and T. Schramme

Abstract

In his paper, Marco Stier argues that mental disorders are irreducible to the brain and cannot be determined in a purely physical manner (Stier, 2013). Instead, he argues that mental disorders can only be determined on the mental level since behavior can only be termed deviant by comparing it to the norms of non-deviant behavior. Thomas Schramme proposes that a psychological conceptualization of mental disorders is necessary since the concept of mental illness is autonomous from somatic medicine and that psychiatry will not find the cure it is looking for through neurobiology (Schramme, 2013). © 2014 Rietschel.