This article supports the view that psychiatry, just like many other academic disciplines, is necessarily perspectivistic or pluralistic. The perspectives of psychiatry are based partly in the sciences and partly in the humanities. Thus psychiatrists, possibly without realising it, find themselves with a foot in both domains. This dualistic position presents the psychiatrist with a number of problems, as the history of psychiatry shows us. This article aims to provide insight into some of these theoretical issues - which are relevant in clinical practice - thereby enhancing the 'methodological awareness'.