Abstract
Biological Psychiatry emerged in the 1980s in the United States with the publication of DSM-III (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders). This manual intends to be a-theoretical and to provide objective descriptions of "mental disorders" by using diagnostic criteria that do not include discussions about the aetiology of these "disorders". Hence and despite the “biological” label conferred to this branch of psychiatry, there is no explicit concern to ascertain the possible biological origins of "mental disorders" in DSM-III. In this paper we intend to examine the modifications in North American Psychiatry following the introduction of the first psychotropic medications and the subsequent role played by the pharmaceutical industry in this process. Thus, what is under analysis in our article is that, by appropriating psychotropic drugs as the first therapeutic option, Biological Psychiatry creates an alliance with the pharmaceutical industry that inserts it into a technoscientific network that makes it difficult to know the limits between Biological Psychiatry, Psychopharmacology and the Pharmaceutical industry.
Keywords:
Biological Psychiatry; Psychopharmacology; network; technoscience