Worldwide, annual investments in scientific research to cure devastating mental pathologies such as bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and clinical depression are huge – comparable to spending on finding a cure for any other disease. But while mental disorders are indeed medical diseases, with their own culprit molecules and aberrant anatomies, they are also different from “physical” diseases in important ways. For no matter how thoroughly “medical” mental illnesses are, they are also thoroughly social. The reasons for this stem from the nature of mental disorders themselves.
Worldwide, annual investments in scientific research to cure devastating mental pathologies such as bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and clinical depression are huge – comparable to spending on finding a cure for any other disease. But while mental disorders are indeed medical diseases, with their own culprit molecules and aberrant anatomies, they are also different from “physical” diseases in important ways. For no matter how thoroughly “medical” mental illnesses are, they are also thoroughly social. The reasons for this stem from the nature of mental disorders themselves.