University of Oslo
Department of Philosophy, Classics, History of Art and Ideas
PhD, 2009
Oslo, Norway
  •  84
    Why Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder Is Not a True Medical Syndrome
    Ethical Human Psychology and Psychiatry 14 (1): 61-73. 2012.
    Critics of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) have repeatedly argued that there is no proof for the condition being symptomatic of an organic brain disease and that the current "ADHD epidemic" is an expression of medicalization. To this, the supporters of ADHD can retort that the condition is only defined as a mental disorder and not a physical disease. As such, ADHD needs only be a harmful mental dysfunction, which, like other genuine disorders, can have a complex and obscure etiol…Read more
  •  36
    Medico-ethical versus biological evaluationism, and the concept of disease
    Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy 15 (2): 165-173. 2012.
    According to the ‘fact-plus-value’ model of pathology propounded by K. W. M. Fulford, ‘disease’ is a value term that ought to reflect a ‘balance of values’ stemming from patients and doctors and other ‘stakeholders’ in medical nosology. In the present article I take issue with his linguistic-analytical arguments for why pathological status must be relative to such a kind of medico-ethical normativity. Fulford is right to point out that Boorse and other naturalists are compelled to utilize evalua…Read more