Theoretical analysis highlights the complexities of defining addiction and mental disorders, suggesting interpretations may vary based on value judgments.
According to Jerome Wakefield’s harmful dysfunction account, a mental disorder must involve an objective dysfunction couched in evolutionary terms. However, selected effects functions are indeterminate, because (i) the same trait can be both selectively advantageous and disadvantageous and (ii) the functional activity of a trait can be assessed according to conflicting norms, given the trait’s place in a hierarchy of functions. Therefore, there may be a dysfunction that can be described in multiple empirically adequate ways. The choices involved in these cases are value-laden. Some cases of addiction may fit this mold, involving indeterminacy that invites opposing value judgments.
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Matthew Kern (2025) studied this question.
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