How Does the Psychiatrist Know?

How do clinical psychiatrists arrive at their diagnostic conclusions? Little attention has been directed to this question by philosophers of psychiatry. Adrian Kind presents a systematic, in-depth philosophical investigation into this question and argues that psychiatric diagnostic reasoning can be understood as a model-based reasoning procedure analogous to scientific model-based reasoning. To support this, he draws on ideas from the philosophy of science, psychiatry, cognitive science, and artificial intelligence. This study is an invaluable resource for practicing psychiatrists, philosophers interested in psychiatry, and researchers in artificial intelligence or cognitive science interested in medical cognition.

Adrian Kind (Dr.) works as a postdoctoral researcher at Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin and is currently training as a psychodynamic psychotherapist. He received his doctorate through the partner project "Extrospection", a collaboration between HumboldtUniversität zu Berlin and OttovonGuerickeUniversität Magdeburg. He holds Master’s degrees in philosophy (HumboldtUniversität zu Berlin) and psychology (Internationale Psychoanalytische Universität Berlin). His research focuses on epistemological and metaphysical questions in the philosophy of psychiatry, philosophy of mind, philosophy of sports, and the philosophy of religion.