The Disease Controversy: Closing Open Issues

Abstract

This discussion explores the controversy surrounding the term, “mental disease,” and attempts to resolve the issues involved. These issues are accuracy of the term, relationship between the name used and treatment agents. “Mental disease” is accepted as an accurate term describing a relationship between experiential structure and adjustive behavior, distinguishing it from physical disease and separating it from the exclusive control of an individual discipline. The distortions involved in mental disease are considered inevitable, rather than name-dependent, yet their presence requires an explicative use of the disease concept, translating mental illness into meaningful terms regarding descriptive accuracy and the related aspect of who shall treat mental illness.