Scientific progress and the prospects for culture-bound syndromes

Abstract

This paper aims to show that the classification by the American Psychiatric Association (APA) in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) of a distinct listing of disorders known as Culture-Bound Syndromes (CBS) is misguided. I argue that the list of CBS (in Appendix I of the manual) comprises either (a) genuine disorders that should be included within the main body of the DSM; or (b) ersatz-disorders that serve a practical role for psychiatrists dealing with patients from certain cultures but will one day be eliminated or assimilated by bona fide DSM classifications. In support of these views I draw on claims from two key themes in the philosophy of science: (1) the claim that all folk (that is, non-scientific) explanations for phenomena are thoroughly theoretical and therefore fallible; and (2) the occurrence of theoretical elimination in the history of science. I contend that any ersatz-disorders located in the DSM that are judged to be radically false do not differ in kind from eliminated theories in the history of pre-science.