Draft:Harmful Dysfunction Analysis: Difference between revisions

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“A failure of some internal mechanism to perform a function for which it was biologically designed.”<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Wakefield |first=Jerome C. |date=2007 |title=The concept of mental disorder: diagnostic implications of the harmful dysfunction analysis |url=https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2174594/ |journal=World psychiatry: official journal of the World Psychiatric Association (WPA) |volume=6 |issue=3 |pages=149–156 |issn=1723-8617 |pmc=2174594 |pmid=18188432}}</ref>

Dysfunction in HDA refers tomeans a system's inability to serve the purpose it evolved for. This idea draws on [[natural selection]], which explains that the traits present in living organisms emerged because they contributed to the organism's survival and reproductive success. Wakefield considers dysfunction the factual, scientific aspect of mental disorder.

=== Disorder as a Hybrid Concept ===

[[File:Venn Daigram.png|thumb|380x380px|Venn Diagram Illustrating HDA]]

HDA holds that both harm and dysfunction must be present for a condition to be a mental disorder. Dysfunction provides the objective basis for diagnosis; harm adds cultural sensitivity. As a resultThus, not all dysfunctions are mental disorders, and not every harmful condition is a mental disorder.

An example Wakefield uses to prove this is dyslexia.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Wakefield |first=Jerome |date=2021-02-16 |title=Can the Harmful Dysfunction Analysis Distinguish Problematic Normal Variation from Disorder? Reply to Andreas De Block and Jonathan Sholl |url=https://direct.mit.edu/books/oa-edited-volume/5015/chapter-standard/2812074/Can-the-Harmful-Dysfunction-Analysis-Distinguish |journal=MIT Press |language=en |doi=10.7551/mitpress/9949.003.0032}}</ref> Essentially, dyslexia is a failure of the brain's language-processing system and therefore counts as a dysfunction. However, whether it is considered a mental disorder depends on the cultural context. In a literate society, where reading is indispensable to daily life, dyslexia leads to clear disadvantages, making it a disorder. In a pre-literate society where reading is not a necessary skill, it would cause no harm and not be viewed as a disorder. Wakefield describes such cases as “harmless dysfunctions": biological failures that do not produce socially meaningful problems.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Wakefield |first=Jerome C. |date=2014-12-01 |title=The Biostatistical Theory Versus the Harmful Dysfunction Analysis, Part 1: Is Part-Dysfunction a Sufficient Condition for Medical Disorder? |url=https://academic.oup.com/jmp/article-abstract/39/6/648/2743603?redirectedFrom=fulltext&login=true |journal=The Journal of Medicine and Philosophy: A Forum for Bioethics and Philosophy of Medicine |volume=39 |issue=6 |pages=648–682 |doi=10.1093/jmp/jhu038 |issn=0360-5310}}</ref> Wakefield also highlights other conditions like criminality and illiteracy, which are harmful but do not stem from dysfunction.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Wakefield |first=Jerome C. |date=2007 |title=The concept of mental disorder: diagnostic implications of the harmful dysfunction analysis |url=https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2174594/ |journal=World psychiatry: official journal of the World Psychiatric Association (WPA) |volume=6 |issue=3 |pages=149–156 |issn=1723-8617 |pmc=2174594 |pmid=18188432}}</ref> This illustrates that harm alone is insufficient.