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A reply to Kevin Gournay's 'Schizophrenia: a review of the contemporary literature and implications for mental health nursing theory, practice and education’
Author(s) -
DAWSON P. J.
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
journal of psychiatric and mental health nursing
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.69
H-Index - 63
eISSN - 1365-2850
pISSN - 1351-0126
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2850.1997.tb00170.x
Subject(s) - context (archaeology) , mental health , rhetoric , mental health nursing , ideal (ethics) , mythology , psychology , schizophrenia (object oriented programming) , nursing , psychiatry , medicine , political science , law , history , linguistics , philosophy , archaeology , classics
Mental health nurses are being increasingly encouraged to move to a more biologically oriented approach. Authors such as Professor Gournay promulgate the myth that biological psychiatry will soon be able to provide an unambiguous model of the nature of mental disorder. A closer examination of some of the biological research identified by Gournay as moving us closer to this ideal reveals, however, the confused and unconvincing nature of the results so far achieved. In the light of this it seems premature to be advocating wholesale acceptance of the biological model by nursing. Nurses should be made aware of the investigations of the biologists, but, unless they are equipped with the necessary intellectual tools to place such investigations in context, they will continue to be susceptible to the rhetoric of proselytisers such as Gournay.