Nikita Zorin, Russia

MD, PhD, Russian Society for Evidence Based Medicine vice-president; Russian Philosophical Society member; French speaking psychiatrist association member; International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research member; World Federation for Mental Health member, Moscow, Russia

Psychiatric classifications: what do we want, to explain the world or to change it? Don’t ask “How?”, better ask “Why?”

Abstract: This lecture is a collection of fragments of what I have written previously about classifications (K) in medicine and related issues (https://independent.academia.edu/NIKITAZORIN). It deals with the functions of K. In particular, a rarely covered question, K. as instruments of bipower (M. Foucault), coercion and punishment, and redistribution of wealth, within the framework of medical political economy. An attempt is made to show the system of persistent dogmas and misconceptions that are proclaimed in the creation and implementation of C. in practice (“unbiased observation”, “Clinical Reality”, the existence of diseases as “Das Ding an sich” (I. Kant), “objectification” of clinical observations by paraclinical methods, etc…). The sustained existence of nosological forms is explained. Some mechanisms of “social deformations” of K. are shown, including the cycle of “vices” of diseases and “virtues” as instruments of managing economically significant forms of behavior. It should be specifically noted that all of the above are objective international processes, which may or may not be used by certain social forces for their own purposes. Therefore, attempts to present this material as an illustration of the “Conspiracy Theory” (and such attempts are already being made) are absolutely incorrect.