PERSPECTIVE article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology
How the Brain Structures the Boundaries of Psychiatric Discourse
Provisionally accepted
- 1Hospices Civils de Lyon, Lyon, France
- 2Universite Claude Bernard Lyon 1, Villeurbanne, France
- 3Universite de Bordeaux, Talence, France
- 4Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Bordeaux, Talence, France
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Abstract Psychiatry has long relied on the brain as both an explanatory model and a source of legitimacy, yet the persistence of this reference cannot be reduced to the progress of neuroscience. This Perspective explores how "brain talk" operates as a metaphorical and organizational device that structures the boundaries of psychiatric discourse. Drawing on the concepts of boundary object and conceptual metaphor, it argues that the brain has served less as a scientific endpoint than as an epistemic anchor enabling psychiatry to maintain coherence amid conceptual fragmentation and uncertainty. As a boundary object, the brain provides a shared referent through which heterogeneous communities (clinicians, researchers, and patients) can coordinate their practices despite divergent interests and languages. As a conceptual metaphor, it generates narratives that render psychiatric knowledge intelligible, productive, and culturally resonant, even when the underlying mechanisms remain opaque. Through this dual role, the cerebral metaphor contributes to psychiatry's self-organization as a pluralistic field grounded in both scientific aspiration and epistemic humility. Thus, finally, this Perspective suggests that the power of brain discourse reveals less about the brain itself than about psychiatry's ongoing effort to stabilize its identity and legitimacy through the metaphors.
Keywords: boundary object, Brain talk, critical psychiatry, metaphor, Neuroscience
Received: 14 Oct 2025; Accepted: 09 Feb 2026.
Copyright: © 2026 Gauld and Micoulaud Franchi. 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: Christophe Gauld
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.