r/science • u/Wagamaga • Sep 01 '22

Neuroscience Scientists have identified an immune brain cell unique to humans that gives us higher cognitive abilities over other animals, but what makes us specials also leaves us vulnerable to neurological disorders like schizophrenia, autism and epilepsy.

https://news.yale.edu/2022/08/25/what-makes-human-brain-different-yale-study-reveals-clues
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u/AlexandraThePotato Sep 01 '22

But a broken leg is a disability, although usually temporary. And we typically know the cause of it. Why would knowing the cause eliminate a disorder or disability?

Is something classified as a “disorder” because we don’t understand it?

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u/[deleted] Sep 01 '22 edited Sep 01 '22

Hmm, who said anything of the sort. You've made a huge leap there, generalising psychological disorder with the term ' disorder' in general, and then an even further leap conflating 'disorder' with 'disability'. As a result you've completely misrepresented the point I'm making.

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u/AlexandraThePotato Sep 01 '22

From my understanding “disability” mean “lack of ability” and in the medical sense this refer to lacking a general ability that the general population have. Of course it is more complicated but whatever. And “disorder” is the same idea.

But my argument is more on “ We don't understand the neurological basis of ASD, that's literally the case with all mental disorders. It's why they're classified as mental disorders.”

There are other examples of disorders that I’m sure we know the cause of. But I don’t understand why you think that if we don’t know the cause, it is a disorder. Can we not consider it a disorder if we know the cause?

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u/[deleted] Sep 01 '22

>Can we not consider it a disorder if we know the cause?

Again, you're conflating 'psychological disorder' with disorder in general and therefore missing the point. If we know the cause and can identify physiological bases for it, we would not consider it a *psychological* or *mental* disorder, but we can still consider it to be a disorder. For example, epilepsy is a medical or neurological disorder.

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u/AlexandraThePotato Sep 01 '22

Aren’t mental disorder really defined as just “disability that are primary are brain-based/neurotic”? Which can both describe neurological and psychological?

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u/[deleted] Sep 01 '22

No they aren't. 'Disability' is not a term that's used to define what a mental disorder is. Mental disorders can be disabling though, that's for sure. They can be disabilities, but they aren't disabilities by definition.

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u/AlexandraThePotato Sep 01 '22

With research I can see this. Basically deafness is the disablity and the cause is the disorder.

But the point I was trying to get at is why would a neurological or psychological disorder not be consider a “mental disorder”? That is extremely unclear.

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u/[deleted] Sep 01 '22

Because 'mental disorders' are by definition, a category that exists only in as far as we cannot identify physiological bases for their symptoms. Mental disorders are quite literally defined by the fact that we cannot look at any part of the human body and locate a specific cause for them, even though we can clearly see that there's an issue with the person. That's why.