Psychiatry Urged to Confront Human Nature in a Changing DSM Era
The commentary argues that psychiatry must engage with what defines human nature as AI, gene editing, brain organoids, and psychedelic-assisted therapy challenge traditional boundaries. It says the DSM's descriptive symptom-based framework is insufficient for psychiatric conditions shaped by genetic, neural, developmental, lifestyle, trauma-related, and social influences. The authors see signs of change, including debates at the 2026 APA meeting and growing interest in whole-person and brain health.
The commentary, dated October 12, 2026, by Lavretsky, Jeste, and Eyre, argues that psychiatry has largely avoided defining human nature. It cites artificial intelligence generating music and code, mimicking empathy, passing professional exams, and offering psychological guidance, plus gene editing, brain organoids in mouse chimeras, and psychedelic-assisted therapy that alters selfhood and meaning.
The authors describe a move beyond single-neurotransmitter, single-gene, single-drug, single-disorder models. They point to the 2026 APA meeting, where Gupta and Murthy spoke, as showing greater willingness to debate. They also mention DSM-III's reliability improvements and later loss of personal context, along with emerging whole-person and brain-health approaches across disciplines.
This commentary may influence clinicians, researchers, patients, and policymakers by encouraging broader diagnostic frameworks beyond symptom checklists. If psychiatry adopts whole-person and brain-health perspectives, patients could feel more understood, while AI tools may be integrated cautiously. Debates over identity, enhancement, and selfhood may reach families and communities as gene editing and psychedelic therapies advance. The piece could also shape training, research priorities, and public expectations, though concrete changes remain uncertain.