Psychiatry is a medical discipline that uses to the equal extent biological sciences as well as humanities and social sciences. Among specialists, the division into the so-called humanistic and biological psychiatrists is still maintained. The paper is an attempt of a paradigmatic approach to contemporary clinical and theoretical psychiatry.The humanistic paradigm of psychiatry presumes that every psychological and behavioral disorder is a social construct. It depends on culture whether the specific phenomenon is classified as a norm or a pathology. In the biological world, we have only certain phenomena, and their pathologization and depathologization are a product of culture.The neurocognitive paradigm of psychiatry assumes that the functioning of the brain is responsible for the development of mental disorders. Such disorders may be neurodevelopmental, functional or neurodegenerative in nature. In addition, psychopathology, although it derives from tradition, benefits nowadays from the apparatus of conceptual cognitive psychology and cognitive science. Our attempt to systematize the paradigmatic fundamentals of psychiatry is the first attempt at systematization of the foundations of modern psychiatry with an indication of its distinctiveness from other medical sciences.
Keywords: paradigms; psychiatry.
© 2019 MEDPRESS.