Contemporary psychiatry has only one generally
accepted model, that of biological – materialist explanation
and treatment. But clinicians recognize that this model
omits much that is important and they therefore confront a
dilemma: either limit their practice to an incomplete model,
or use other models which seem unfounded and
speculative. Philosophical considerations may help
clinicians find a way out 1) by showing the inherent
limitations of biological – materialist explanations, and 2)
by grounding other (psychotherapeutic) approaches on
general considerations of how the mind, and in particular
language, works. These general considerations include:
the dependence of meaning upon environmental context,
the attribution of meaning as involving sets of skills,
capacities and reactions, the multiplicity of language
games and therefore their individual limitations, the
dependence of meaning upon our shared interests, the
largely unconscious nature of mind and our necessary
limitations to public criteria for mental events and
processes
