Roschian concepts

Evaluation of the concept of mental illness suggests that there are other aspects of its definition that create variability. Lilienfeld and Marino (1995) stated that there has always been great difficulty in establishing the boundary between mental illness and normalcy. These authors suggested that we need to accept this fuzzy boundary as a necessary condition of mental illness. They argued that mental illnesses should be considered open concepts (Meehl, 1977) or Roschian concepts (Rosch, 1973). A Roschian concept is essentially the same as the open concept we have already defined. It is a mental construction used to categorize natural entities that are characterized by fuzzy boundaries. Lilienfeld and Marino argued that this conception of... 

Lilienfeld, S. O., Marino, L. (1995). Mental disorder as a Roschian concept A critique of Wakefield s harmful dysfunction analysis. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 104, 411-420. 

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See also in sourсe #XX -- [ ]

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