Reconceiving Schizophrenia
George Graham editor Man Cheung Chung editor Bill Fulford editor
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Oxford University Press
Published:23rd Nov '06
Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back
Schizophrenia arguably is the most troubling, puzzling, and complex mental illness. No single discipline is equipped to understand it. Though schizophrenia has been investigated predominately from psychological, psychiatric and neurobiological perspectives, few attempts have been made to apply the tool kit of philosophy to schizophrenia, the mix of global analysis, conceptual insight, and argumentative clarity that is indicative of a philosophical perspective. This book is a major effort at redressing that imbalance. Recent developments in the area of philosophy known as the philosophy of psychiatry have made it clear that it is time for philosophy to contribute to our understanding of schizophrenia. The range of contributions is many and varied. Some contributors are professional philosophers; some not. Some contributions focus on matters of method and history. Others argue for dramatic reforms in our understanding of schizophrenia or its symptoms. The authors in this book are committed to the idea that philosophy can indeed help to understand schizophrenia in a way which is different from but complements traditional medical-clinical approaches. The book should appeal to every reader who wants to better understand a major mental illness, including its distinctive character, conscious content, and sources of puzzlement. Readers will find the essays gathered here afford stimulating insights into the human mind and its conditions of vulnerability.
The volume contains many thought-provoking and worthwhile contributions, with little overlap of content, and all of them deserve detailed consideration. It serves as an amazing achievement of conceptual rigor in thinking about schizophrenia. * British Journal of Psychiatry, *
This book is an inspiring and rigorous overview of philosophy's attempts to understand schizophrenia and is worthwhile reading fro anyone - practitioner, academic, or individual - challenged by this most distressing of disorders. * Mental Health Today *
ISBN: 9780198526131
Dimensions: 230mm x 155mm x 20mm
Weight: 548g
352 pages