This paper proposes a discussion on the epistemological basis of traditional science, approaching a few issues that are important for the critical analysis of psychiatric discourse, including the reification of theoretical constructs, the existence of self-corroborative assumptions, and the processes of disjunction and reduction of knowledge. Taking as premises (a) that knowledge is socially constructed and (b) that traditional science has a fragmentary character, a systemic or complex paradigm is presented,concerning the direction taken by contemporary science. Among the implications of such a paradigm for psychiatry are overcoming its reduction and disjunction trends; realizing that human beings are cultural by nature, and therefore no single approach can cover the whole complexity of the the complexity of the human condition; and understanding a psychiatric diagnosis as a semiotic act, which participates recursively in the construction of illness. In conclusion, this work indicates the need for interdisciplinary dialogue among the various discourses on the human condition (neuro-biological, psycho-dynamic, anthropological, etc), and presents a few examples of investigations towards this end.
Epistemology; systemic thinking; complex thinking; interdisciplinarity