Establishing the accuracy of self-diagnosis in psychiatry

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Fellowes, S. (2024). Establishing the accuracy of self-diagnosis in psychiatry. Philosophical Psychology, 38(6), 2542-2569. https://doi.org/10.1080/09515089.2024.2327823

Publication date: 10 Mar 2024 Added to AutiHub: 14 Sep 2026 Type: Article Article language: English
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Authors

Publication authors
1
Publication authors identified as autistic
1 / 1 (100.0%)
  1. Sam Fellowes *

Abstract

Self-diagnosis in psychiatry is where individuals diagnose themselves rather than rely upon official diagnosticians to supply a psychiatric diagnosis.The accuracy of self-diagnosis is a contested topic.In this paper, I outline what arguments are needed to see self-diagnosis as accurate and how different approaches to self-diagnosis require different arguments.I show how different arguments are required to justify accuracy for an autistic individual judging they are autistic compared to non-autistic individuals judging they are not autistic.Different arguments are required if a selfdiagnosing individual accepts or rejects official diagnostic criteria.Finally, different arguments are required depending upon whether diagnoses are seen as objective entities, the product of theoretical virtues or practically useful groupings.All these approaches require unique arguments to justify the accuracy of self-diagnosis.Identifying the required arguments for different approaches is a stepping stone toward establishing whether those arguments and which of those arguments can be successfully justified.

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These indicators describe the bibliography cited by this publication. An author name is counted each time it appears in one cited reference, so the same person can be counted more than once. Names not yet linked to an author already present in AutiHub are treated as unknown, not as non-autistic. Last computed: 19 Sep 2026 01:01.

Cited references
49
With a DOI
39
Without a DOI, from raw bibliography text
10
3 / 49 (6.1%) cited references include at least one author identified as autistic.
References with data to complete
2 / 49 (4.1%)
References with detected author names
47 / 49 (95.9%)
Without detected author names
2
Without a structured title
1
Without a stable identifier
7
References with raw author names still to review
1
References with external metadata lookup issues
0
These indicators apply to cited references displayed on this page, after technical duplicates have been merged. A reference without a DOI can still support author statistics when a title and author names are available.
Author names detected in the cited bibliography
128
From DOI or external metadata
128
From validated raw bibliography text
0
Raw names already validated
0
Raw names still to review
1
28 / 128 (21.9%) names are linked to an author already present in AutiHub. 100 / 128 (78.1%) names are not yet linked.
Names linked to a person identified as autistic
3 / 128 (2.3%)
Calculated across all author names detected in the cited bibliography. Among names linked to an author already present in AutiHub: 3 / 28 (10.7%). Distinct people identified as autistic: 3 / 127 (2.4%).
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