Nature and Narrative

This is a challenging and fascinating work. It offers the start of a conversation about the peril of taking issues of meaning for granted in psychiatry and does so in a manner that manifests the potential wealth in an ever broadening dialogue of biological and cultural science and the humanities. * The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disorder, Vol 194, No 1 *
As might be expected, this book is full of ideas, vibrant with rhetoric and debate, and always lively. Philosophy is like argument, most of all with each other, and argument is almost their evidence base . . . It all makes for an excellent read . . . What is clear from this book is that philosophy is clearly on its way back into psychiatry and cannot be ignored. This is but the first of a series on international perspectives in philosophy and psychiatry and my prediction is that philosophy will continue to be . . . part of empirical psychiatry. * JNNP *
. . . the majority of the chapters are useful and absorbing from both an intellectual and a practical point of view . . . overall this is a highly successful first venture for the new series. Several of the issues raised are fundamental to the humane practice of psychiatry and should be part of any training curriculum . . . this book would repay reading by anyone in the mental health field who has a curiosity about conceptual issues and who is prepared to question ideas and assumptions which are so often taken for granted in our work. * Journal of Consciousness Studies, Vol 11, No 5-6 *