LSAT 106 | Section 2 | Logical Reasoning: Q8

LR Question 8 Explanation

QUESTION TEXT: The symptoms of mental disorders are behavioral…

QUESTION TYPE: Necessary Assumption

CONCLUSION: Patients whose mental disorders come from chemical imbalances can only be treated with medicine.

REASONING: Some patients can be treated with psychotherapy. But some patients have diseases that come from chemical imbalances.

ANALYSIS: There isn’t really any reasoning given for the conclusion. Instead the argument just states two unconnected facts.

It might be possible to treat a chemical imbalance with psychotherapy. The argument has to assume that can’t be true.

___________

1. CORRECT. The argument is assuming that psychotherapy can’t fix chemical imbalances, but it gives no evidence for that statement.
2. The argument only claimed that medication would work. It doesn’t matter how fast it would work.
3. It doesn’t matter how common chemical imbalance disorders are. It only matters that psychotherapy can’t treat them.
4. This only has to be true that medicine works better for mental disorders caused by chemical imbalances.
5. It only has to be true that psychotherapy can’t treat mental disorders caused by chemical imbalances.

Recap: The question begins with “The symptoms of mental disorders are behavioral”. It is a Necessary Assumption question. Learn more about LSAT Necessary questions in our guide to LSAT Logical Reasoning question types.