Causes of Mental Disorders - General Theories

General Theories

There are a number of theories or models seeking to explain the causes (etiology) of mental disorders. They may be based on different foundations, including their basic classification of mental disorders. There may be differences in philosophy of mind regarding whether, or how, the mind is considered separately from the brain.

The most common view is that disorders tend to result from genetic dispositions and environmental stressors, combining to cause patterns of distress or dysfunction or, more sharply, trigger disorders (Diathesis-stress model). A practical mixture of models may often be used to explain particular issues and disorders, although there may be difficulty defining boundaries for indistinct psychiatric syndromes.

The primary model of contemporary mainstream Western psychiatry is the biopsychosocial model (BPS), which merges biological, psychological and social factors. It may be commonly neglected or misapplied in practice due to being too broad or relativistic, however. Biological psychiatry has tended to follow a biomedical model focused on organic or "hardware" pathology of the brain, where many mental disorders are conceptualized as disorders of brain circuits likely caused by developmental processes shaped by a complex interplay of genetics and experience.

Psychoanalytic theories, focused on unresolved internal and relational conflicts, have been posited as overall explanations of mental disorder, although today most psychoanalytic groups are said to adhere to the biopsychosocial model and to accept an eclectic mix of subtypes of psychoanalysis.

Evolutionary psychology (or more specifically evolutionary psychopathology or psychiatry) has also been proposed as an overall theory, positing that many mental disorders involve the dysfunctional operation of mental modules adapted to ancestral physical or social environments but not necessarily to modern ones. Other theories suggest that mental illness could have evolutionary advantages for the species, including in enhancing creativity. Some related behavioral abnormalities have been found in non-human great apes.

Attachment theory is another kind of evolutionary-psychological approach sometimes applied in the context for mental disorders, which focuses on the role of early caregiver-child relationships, responses to danger, and the search for a satisfying reproductive relationship in adulthood.

An overall distinction is also commonly made between a "medical model" (also known as a biomedical or disease model), and a "social model" (also known as an empowerment or recovery model) of mental disorder and disability, with the former focusing on hypothesized disease processes and symptoms, and the latter focusing on hypothesized social constructionism and social contexts.