{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,16]],"date-time":"2026-10-16T23:24:06Z","timestamp":1792193046491,"version":"4.4.0"},"reference-count":26,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,2,19]],"date-time":"2026-02-19T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1771459200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Psychol."],"abstract":"<jats:p>\n                    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 \u201cbrain talk\u201d operates as a metaphorical and organizational device that structures the boundaries of psychiatric discourse. Drawing on the concepts of\n                    <jats:italic>boundary object<\/jats:italic>\n                    and\n                    <jats:italic>conceptual metaphor<\/jats:italic>\n                    , 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\u2019s 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\u2019s ongoing effort to stabilize its identity and legitimacy through the metaphors.\n                  <\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3389\/fpsyg.2026.1725149","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,2,19]],"date-time":"2026-02-19T05:23:29Z","timestamp":1771478609000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":1,"title":["How the brain structures the boundaries of psychiatric discourse"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"17","author":[{"given":"Christophe","family":"Gauld","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Child Psychiatry, Hospices Civils de Lyon","place":["Lyon, France"]},{"name":"SANPSY, CNRS, UMR 6033","place":["Bordeaux, France"]},{"name":"Institut des Sciences Cognitives Marc Jeannerod, UMR 5229, CNRS, Universit\u00e9 Claude Bernard Lyon 1","place":["Lyon, France"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Jean-Arthur","family":"Micoulaud-Franchi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"SANPSY, CNRS, UMR 6033","place":["Bordeaux, France"]},{"name":"University Sleep Medicine Service, University Hospital of Bordeaux","place":["Bordeaux, France"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1965","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,2,19]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","DOI":"10.1007\/978-3-030-11899-0","volume-title":"The biopsychosocial model of health and disease: New philosophical and scientific developments","author":"Bolton","year":"2019"},{"key":"ref2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"99","DOI":"10.1353\/ppp.2007.0001","article-title":"What is mental about mental disorder?","volume":"13","author":"Br\u00fclde","year":"2006","journal-title":"Philos. 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