Vice and the Diagnostic Classification of Mental Disorders: A Philosophical Case Conference

This main article for a Philosophy, Psychiatry, & Psychology philosophical case conference is intended to raise philosophical, psychiatric, and public policy issues concerning the relationship between concepts of criminality, mental disorder, and the classification of mental disorders. After introducing the basic problem of the confounding of “vice” and mental disorder concepts in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th Edition—Text Revision, the author summarizes three different cases from the literature that illustrate the problem of the vice–mental disorder relationship. Four general aspects of the conceptual issues are presented to frame the discussion, and general questions in a range of domains are posed for commentators.