Understanding individuals and idiographic judgement
Two major recent ideas have come to dominate thinking about healthcare recently but seem to be in conflict. On the one hand, the rise of EBM has brought with it an emphasis on the importance of evidence gathered over general cases. On the other, the idea of patients as consumers has brought with it the idea of medicine for the person with a focus on the individual. As is often the case, this is particularly clear in the case of mental health.
The World Psychiatric Association advocates the development of a ‘comprehensive’ model of diagnosis or assessment as part of its ongoing Institutional Program for Psychiatry for the Person. A WPA workgroup charged with formulating ‘International Guidelines for Diagnostic Assessment’ (IGDA) has published a guideline called ‘Idiographic (Personalised) Diagnostic Formulation’ which recommends an idiographic component alongside criteriological diagnosis.
But if the demands of general EBM (reflected in psychiatry by criteriological diagnosis) are to be balanced by a person focused idiographic element, what might this be? This session critically examines the idea of idiographic judgement by looking to the person who first came up with the idea.
Reading:
Windelband, W. (1980) ‘History and natural science’ History and Theory & Psychology 19: 169-85.