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What's in a model? Network models as tools instead of representations of what psychiatric disorders really are

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 March 2019

Hanna M. van Loo
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University of Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, 9700 RB Groningen, The Netherlands. [email protected]://www.rug.nl/staff/h.m.van.loo/
Jan-Willem Romeijn
Affiliation:
Faculty of Philosophy, University of Groningen, 9712 GL Groningen, The Netherlands. [email protected]://www.philos.rug.nl/~romeyn/

Abstract

Network models block reductionism about psychiatric disorders only if models are interpreted in a realist manner – that is, taken to represent “what psychiatric disorders really are.” A flexible and more instrumentalist view of models is needed to improve our understanding of the heterogeneity and multifactorial character of psychiatric disorders.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2019 

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