Owen Chevalier

Recent philosophical literature has called for more participatory approaches in psychiatric research, advocating for the inclusion of patients and other stakeholders in processes ranging from the classification of mental disorders to the evaluation of treatment standards. While the dominant scientific paradigm continues to emphasize statistical rigor and methodological control, this approach often fails to accommodate the complexities of psychiatric phenomena, particularly as experienced by those diagnosed with mental disorders. There is growing recognition that participatory methods—when implemented robustly—can offer epistemic advantages by incorporating forms of knowledge that are otherwise marginalized or excluded. This paper examines the epistemic case for participatory psychiatry through the lens of anorexia nervosa (AN), a condition in which patients’ first-person reports may diverge from clinical frameworks. We argue that these divergences are epistemically significant—they reveal structural gaps in current models of understanding AN—and evidence of the value for a social objectivity framework for psychiatry. Drawing on recent work in the philosophy of psychiatry, we assess how alternative philosophical approaches, that seek to redefine objectivity and the epistemic value of lived experience, can be appropriate for the AN case.

This paper examines the impact of TikTok on the public's understanding and engagement with psychiatric and psychological concepts. The rise of mental health-related content on social media has been linked to an increase in adults seeking a diagnosis of ADHD (Yeung et al., 2022). By reviewing a case study: the revision of the term "object permanence" from a developmental stage to an attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder symptom, I argue that a looping effect, modeled after Hacking (1999), can explain the pattern of language revision for psychological terms on TikTok. Interviews with TikTok users provide preliminary evidence for this looping effect and the research is contextualized within the broader psychiatric discourse.

This paper examines the impact of TikTok on the public's understanding and engagement with psychiatric and psychological concepts. The rise of mental health-related content on social media has been linked to an increase in adults seeking a diagnosis of ADHD (Yeung et al., 2022). By reviewing a case study: the revision of the term "object permanence" from a developmental stage to an attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder symptom, I argue that a looping effect, modeled after Hacking (1999), can explain the pattern of language revision for psychological terms on TikTok. Interviews with TikTok users provide preliminary evidence for this looping effect and the research is contextualized within the broader psychiatric discourse.