Interesting. A case example in how the quest for scientific ‘rationality’ encourages us to focus on the foreground and neglect the broader context. (In a way similar to fundamental attribution error). Just because something is harder to study doesn’t make it any less ‘rational’; what can be measured is not necessarily what is important.
Complex systems encourages us to think as much about the connections as the individual agents, and think about emergent outcomes as much as reductive analysis.
He regrets the fact that the DSM, psychiatry’s diagnostic manual, has removed from major depressive disorder’s diagnostic criteria any exception for life circumstance, even bereavement. This is part of an effort to make diagnosis more objective and scientific, and encourage the profession to focus on observable symptoms rather than causes.
Source: Could Suicidal Behaviors Be the Result of Evolution?
ALZX 