Neurology vs. psychiatry, Nature vs. nurture, Structure vs. functionand, Biology vs. psychology.

Neurology vs. psychiatry  The clinical distinction between neurology and psychiatry is increasingly appreciated as awkward and artificial  (Chapter 2).  Neurology has traditionally focused on organic disorders with identifiable pathology, whereas psychiatry has focused on functional disorders without observable pathology.  Regardless of intentions, the implication in that neurological disorders are real diseases, whereas psychiatric disorders are not.  Functional, in this context, actually means that the organic pathophysiological basis has not been discovered yet--not that one does not exist.  A better term for functional might be idiopathic.

The mind-brain dichotomy  The mind and the brain share the same organ.  Mind is what is called the personal experience of the brain or perhaps the experienced of change in the brain.  How can the complexity of the mind be explained by the brain?  First, the brain is undoubtedly more complex than is currently known; second perhaps minds are not as complex as generally thought.

Nature vs. nurture  There is no contest: nature is nurtured, and nurture has a nature.  Nature and nurture are mutually interacting systems.  It has been shown clearly that the environment (i.e., nurture) can affect biology at very basic molecular levels (e.g. branching of dendrites, activity of enzymes).  Nurture itself can be seen as a reciprocal biological event.  Human beings affect one another, and there exist biological changes paralleled to the subjective experiences.

Structure vs. function  All mental activities (behavior, thoughts, feelings) are paired with biological events in the brain.  The techniques of basic neuroscience can potentially identify the structural correlates of mental activity at the level of genes and other molecules.  The division between structure and function rest solely on which biological level is arbitrarily chosen as a cutoff point.  A more accurate approach is to accept that each biological disorder, including mental illness, has a structural pathology at some level or assortment of levels, and that this structural abnormality is reflected as a disorder of function or regulation.

Biology vs. psychology  This dichotomy is both a derivative of the mind-brain issue and an unfortunate offshoot of debates within the field of psychiatry.  Biology, psychology, empirical observations.  The level and descriptive lexicon used to describe behavioral phenomena can be varied.  Ina particular situation, one model might be more enlightening or clinically appropriated than another. 

Neurology,vs,psychiatry,Nature,vs,nurture,Structure,vs,function,and,Biology,vs,psychology