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Disembodied Spirits and Deanimated Bodies

The psychopathology of common sense

Giovanni Stanghellini author

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Oxford University Press

Published:9th Sep '04

Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back

Disembodied Spirits and Deanimated Bodies cover

How can we better understand and treat those suffering from schizophrenia and manic-depressive illnesses? This important new book takes us into the world of those suffering from such disorders. Using self descriptions, its emphasis is not on how mental health professionals view sufferers, but on how the patients themselves experience their disorder. Central to the book is the idea that schizophrenic persons live like disembodied spirits or deanimated bodies. As disembodied spirits, they feel like abstract entities which contemplate their own existence and the world from outside. As deanimated bodies, schizophrenic people feel deprived of the possibility of living personal experiences - perceptions, thoughts, emotions - as their own. A new volume in the International Perspectives in Philosophy and Psychiatry series, this book will be of great interest to all those working with sufferers from such disorders - helping them to better understand their mental lives and providing important insights into how best to treat them.

In this marvellous book, Stanghellini reinvigorates and resurrects psychopathology as more than just the listing of symptoms, re-presenting it as the 'science of the meanings of abnormal human phenomena' . . . The book, from the successful and influential OUP series International Perspectives in Philosophy and Psychiatry, is, like the others, a joy to read . . . All mental health professionals are likely to gain, both clinically and intellectually, from reading this book, and carers, patients and philosophers will find much to help them engage with the potentially disorientating and frightening reality of psychosis. * Mental Health Today *

ISBN: 9780198520894

Dimensions: 233mm x 157mm x 15mm

Weight: 370g

208 pages