Abstract

KREMER, Irene. Neurodevelopment in childhood. The importance of diagnostic names. Salud(i)Ciencia [online]. 2018, vol.23, n.3, pp.1-10. ISSN 1667-8682.  http://dx.doi.org/10.21840/siic/158245.

The objective of this presentation is to review the denomination Neurodevelopmental Disorders contained in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) by considering the latest paradigms on human development, which include the emerging neurobiological and intersubjective foundations required to understand and intervene in problems of the baby and the small child. The current denomination adopts a theoretical position that is exclusively biological (despite being defined as a-theoretical), and tends to make fundamental aspects of human development linked to inter-subjectivity invisible. The presentation also includes clinical experiences related to perinatal events in children with serious developmental problems and a revision of the underlying paradigms of the different concepts of Health and Mental Illness. Two relevant variables that intervene in human development are considered; firstly, epigenetics, underlining that its programming can be altered by diverse environmental conditions, thus revealing how certain acquired characters can be transmitted to offspring and that such modifications are potentially reversible; secondly, the recursive, visualized in the emergence of the mind from its biological bases, and the marks of inter-subjectivity in the body. New evidence is provided that mental phenomena begin as a mind shared with others and that early intersubjective experiences are mapped into the individual's brain performance. From the above, it follows that neurodevelopment requires intersubjectivity to enable the emergence of the mind as an eminently human phenomenon. Therefore, this should be reflected in the most commonly used diagnostic names.

Keywords : autism spectrum disorders; developmental psychopathology; human development; intersubjectivity; neurodevelopment; psychiatric diagnoses.

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