Where would psychiatric diseases come in this Aristotelian analysis? Do they have efficient causes?
I regard the ‘four causes’ as a tool to stimulate thinking, yet in order to understand disease, I prefer my metaphors: Wisdom of the Body and Mind. By understanding I mean, to be able to apply a treatment which is better than WOB’s solution to a given situation. This applies also to psychiatric diseases. Take for instance paranoia which according to Freud results from the suppression of a homosexual urge. This urge is conveyed to the Mind by WOB. Actually it is the patient’s WOB which is homosexual. It urges the mind to seduce a male lover. Mind which represents the society refuses. In order to function, WOB comes with a (compromise) solution known as paranoia. More about this you will find in WOB and Gender Paranoia is therefore the Final Cause. The Efficient cause is the society, which forbids homosexuality. Formal cause, are the patient’s delusions, and the Material Cause, his misery.
