REVIEW article
Front. Hum. Neurosci.
Sec. Brain Health and Clinical Neuroscience
Relearning the epistemology, history, and future of neuropsychiatry
Provisionally accepted
Juan Camilo Castro Martinez1,2,3*
Felipe Botero-Rodríguez1,2,3
Jesus Ramirez-Bermudez4
Vaughan Bell5
Gabriel Oviedo-Lugo1,2
Jose Manuel Santacruz-Escudero2,6
Angela Iragorri1,2
Joan A Camprodon7,8Brian Lawlor10,9
Hernando Santamaría-García11,2,9- 1Pontifical Javeriana University, Bogotá, Colombia
- 2Intellectus, center for memory and cognition, Hospital Universitario San Ignacio, Bogota, Colombia
- 3SynaptIA-Inteligencia artificial para la investigación en salud mental, Bogota, Colombia
- 4Instituto Nacional de Neurologia y Neurocirugia Manuel Velasco Suarez, Mexico City, Mexico
- 5University College London, London, United Kingdom
- 6Instituto de envejecimiento, Facultad de medicina, Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Bogota, Colombia
- 7Harvard University, Cambridge, United States
- 8Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, United States
- 9Global Brain Health Institute, San Francisco, United States
- 10Global Brain Health Institute, County Dublin, Ireland
- 11Doctorado de neurociencia, Facultad de medicina, Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Bogota, Colombia
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Neuropsychiatry is a transdisciplinary field at the intersection of neuroscience, psychiatry, neurology, and humanities. Despite this strategic position, a comprehensive framework is still needed to bridge these domains. This review examines the historical evolution of how neurological, mental, and neuropsychiatric symptoms have been conceptualized, from antiquity to contemporary models, using the brain–body dilemma as a guiding thread. This historical analysis provides the epistemological and ontological foundations of neuropsychiatry, which are then connected with current definitions to critically assess the field's persistent tensions. Building on this foundation, a renewed paradigm is proposed where a crosstalk between them is enabled, grounded in deep phenotyping, dimensional research frameworks (e.g., RDoC, HiTOP), and integrative models linking biological, psychometric, social data, and subjective experience. Special attention is given to a "subjectomic" layer that aims to systematically incorporate lived experience. Finally, reforms in education, clinical practice, and research are advocated to foster this conceptual reorientation, aiming at interdisciplinary collaboration and advancing patient care.
Keywords: deep phenotyping, Dimensional psychiatry, mind–body integration, neurophenomenology, Neuropsychiatry
Received: 17 Oct 2025; Accepted: 30 Jan 2026.
Copyright: © 2026 Castro Martinez, Botero-Rodríguez, Ramirez-Bermudez, Bell, Oviedo-Lugo, Santacruz-Escudero, Iragorri, Camprodon, Lawlor and Santamaría-García. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Juan Camilo Castro Martinez
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.