Am J Psychiatry 1988; 145:137-147
Copyright © 1988 by American Psychiatric Association
What is "truth"? Some philosophical contributions to psychiatric issues
ER Wallace 4th
Medical College of Georgia, Augusta 30912-7300.
Philosophical perspectives, although eminently relevant to clinical
investigation and practice, are rarely brought to bear on psychiatric
topics. The author attempts to raise professional consciousness of core
issues in the philosophy of science by examining the status of truth,
theory, and observation in psychiatry. He evaluates prominent approaches to
the problem of knowledge, particularly those of the "subjectivists" and
"relativists," such as Schafer and Spence, and the "empiricists" and
"inductivists," such as the proponents of DSM-III. Drawing on contemporary
philosophy of science, the work of William James, and the classical Greek
conviction that more truth resides in the middle than at either extreme,
the author mediates between these rival points of view.
