Biological psychiatry and mental health nursing.

Abstract

Psychiatry is becoming increasingly dominated by 'biologism', that is, the epistemological premise that the truths of mental illness can be uncovered, conceptualized, explained and remedied biologically. Historically, mental health nursing has been influenced by philosophical movements within, and the knowledge claims of, psychiatry. It is likely, therefore, that mental health nursing will be similarly influenced by the apparent 'biologization' of psychiatry. While it would be foolhardy or indeed absurd to suggest that biological research and treatment have no place in the understanding and management of mental disorder, it is reasonable and appropriate for mental health nurses to critically evaluate the extent, nature and ramifications of the apparent shift towards a biologically oriented epistemology in psychiatry. This paper seeks to evaluate some of the epistemological assumptions of biological psychiatry. It is maintained that biological psychiatry, at least in its most extreme or doctrinaire forms, is potentially incompatible with nursing's epistemological commitment to holism, and that mental health nursing should resist embracing a reductionistic biological worldview such as that espoused, implicitly or explicitly, by adherents of biological psychiatry.