There is an implication inherent to "chemical imbalance" that assumes a normative range. Modern medicine is universally based on normative ranges. If you are outside this range, it is considered a problem. Chemical imbalance is a generic and apt descriptor.
Assuming you had an omniscient scientific tool every abnormal change in behaviour by definition has a correspondence to an abnormal state of the brain, that's just saying the same thing at a different level of abstraction.
When everyone is obese and has high blood pressure the correct cause of correction is probably setting different social incentives to fix a systemic problem, not mass producing insulin and betablockers, because you stopped at an overly reductionist level of description and mistook it for insight.
In this case chemical imbalance would be objectively wrong. Their brain is being affected by another part of the body entirely, but you would have doctors selectively treating the symptoms (the 'chemical imbalance') rather than the cause.
I disagree. Chemical imbalance is not necessarily a solitary cause, it's describing a condition regardless. shrug
> you would have doctors selectively treating the symptoms (the 'chemical imbalance') rather than the cause
Typically they treat both or in most cases, the easier problem with less severe treatment consequences (classic House MD - live in constant pain from muscle death vs lose a limb).
As disconcerting as it may be, subjective feeling is a range (google "pain indicator charts") as well as professional (for some value of that) psychological analysis.
I think your view is minority view.
It may be a minority view but only because of people's blind faith in a medical authority's ability to distinguish a patient's mind as 'abnormal'. What Barrin92 said is logically sound, an empirical diagnosis of the behavior coming from an individual is not a very precise measure of any type of chemical imbalance. That's not to say individuals suspected to have of mental illness shouldn't get treated, but that medical professionals shouldn't jump to medications as a primary end-all treatment (which is what I believe is what the linked article was trying to say).