Studying Mental Disorders from a Scientific Materialist Perspective

This study seeks to utilize the holistic systems perspective of the Argentine philosopher of science, Mario Bunge (1919–2020), characterized by scientific systematics. This approach aims to understand the nature and symptoms of mental disorders and thus demonstrate the importance of philosophical study in promoting the mental health and educational competence of members of society.
This is demonstrated specifically through the applications of this scientific systems philosophy to the level of defining and classifying mental disorders, and the essential contribution this makes to enriching the ontology of general medical sciences. This endeavor requires a solid understanding of the causal connections between the neural mechanisms of mental disorders and a number of systems (immune, affective-social, and developmental-evolutionary). He adds: “While we emphasize here that we cannot optimally study our mental characteristics except through the scientific method, unless this study is based on a philosophical doctrine that supports a holistic view of the world, in addition to a moral philosophy that affirms basic human rights and duties, our findings regarding mental disorders will not be free from our social biases and the manipulation of authority, as this study will reveal.”