De la ciencia natural al diagnóstico: Operacionalización y construcción del objeto en salud mental. El caso evanescente de la psicopatía
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: This article offers a lesson in the philosophy of science for the humanities through the case of isotopes, understood as “versions” of the same chemical element that share an identity criterion (number of protons) but differ in internal features (neutrons) with relevant effects on their behavior. The isotopic distinction serves as a conceptual laboratory to revisit the old separation between essence and accident and, above all, to emphasize that the criteria that stabilize a class do not “fall from the sky” but are adopted because they enable classification, prediction, and intervention. The text then transfers this logic to the problem of identity via the Ship of Theseus, showing that identity and time are intertwined and that cut-off points depend on operational criteria which, in the human sciences, are rarely as clear-cut as in the natural sciences. From there, it argues that measuring human phenomena requires three unavoidable operations: carving out the phenomenon, freezing dynamic processes, and deciding which variables are relevant, making any measurement necessarily partial. The applied case is the construct of psychopathy, presented as an object “without a periodic table”: its identity depends on classificatory decisions (psychopathy/sociopathy/ASPD), on instruments (e.g., the PCL-R), and on institutional frameworks with clinical and forensic consequences. The essay concludes that precision is not equivalent to truth: indicators may be consistent and still conceal contestable conceptual decisions; moreover, when measures are used for decision-making, they can generate feedback effects (Goodhart/Campbell) and performative biases.
Source: Mente y Cultura
Institution: Camilo José Cela University
Language: Spanish
Subfield: General Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W7219668499