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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  and
Jan-Willem Romeijn
Hanna M. van Loo
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University of Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, 9700 RB Groningen, The Netherlands. h.van.loo@umcg.nlhttp://www.rug.nl/staff/h.m.van.loo/
Jan-Willem Romeijn
Affiliation:
Faculty of Philosophy, University of Groningen, 9712 GL Groningen, The Netherlands. j.w.romeijn@rug.nlhttp://www.philos.rug.nl/~romeyn/
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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
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 42 , 2019 , e30
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Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2019 

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