Books in the International Perspectives in Philosophy & Psychiatry series

'Maladapting Minds' represents the very first attempts to critically explore the interface between evolutionary theory and the philosophy of psychiatry. With contributions from an international and interdisciplinary cast of authors, it is important reading for psychiatrists, philosophers of mind, and evolutionary psychologists.

Embodied Selves and Divided Minds examines how research in embodied cognition and enactivism can contribute to our understanding of the nature of self-consciousness, the metaphysics of personal identity, and the disruptions to self-awareness that occur in case of psychopathology.

Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) is a diagnosis given to a significant number of people in the Western world. Yet many of the core concepts and symptoms that underlye this diagnosis are questionable. This book presents a compelling analysis of BPD, arguing that it needs to be approached in a new light- one that will benefit patients.

Psychodynamic psychotherapy and psychoanalysis have had to defend themselves from a barrage of criticisms throughout their history. In this book David Jopling argues that the changes achieved through therapy are really just functions of placebos that rally the mind's native healing powers. It is a bold new work that delivers yet another blow to Freud and his followers.

People do great wrongs to each other all the time, sometimes deliberately, sometimes accidentally. This book looks at how people, communities, and nations can address great wrongs and how they can heal from them - taking into consideration how differences in cultures, histories, and group expectations affect the possibilities for healing.

Feelings of Being is the first philosophical account of the nature, role and variety of existential feelings in psychiatric illness and in everyday life. These include feelings of familiarity, unfamiliarity, estrangement, isolation, emptiness, belonging, etc. It will be valuable for all philosophers and psychiatrists interested in emotion.

With a new edition of the 'bibles' of psychiatric diagnosis - the ICD and DSM - under development, it is timely to take a step back and evaluate how we diagnose and define mental disorder. This new book by Derek Bolton tackles the problems involved in the definition and boundaries of mental disorder.

How should we deal with mental disorder - as an "illness" like diabetes or bronchitis, as a "problem in living", or what? This book seeks to answer such questions by going to their roots, in philosophical questions about the nature of the human mind, the ways in which it can be understood, and about the nature and aims of scientific medicine.

People do great wrongs to each other all the time, sometimes deliberately, sometimes accidentally. This book looks at how people, communities, and nations can address great wrongs and how they can heal from them - taking into consideration how differences in cultures, histories, and group expectations affect the possibilities for healing.

Despite the currency of the notion of mental illness, there are those who take the radical sceptical line that mental illness is a fabrication. This book provides an evaluation of the traditional philosophical disputes about the existence and nature of mental illness.

Part of the series "International Perspectives in Philosophy and Psychiatry", this work aims to build links between the sciences and humanities in psychiatry. It is of interest to those with practical experience of mental health issues, whether as providers or as users/consumers of services, as well as to philosophers and social scientists.

The public, mental health consumers, as well as mental health practitioners wonder about what kinds of values mental health professionals hold, and what kinds of values influence psychiatric diagnosis. This book is a most readable and scholarly examination of the role played by value judgements in mental illness, psychiatric diagnosis, and the DSM.

Part of the "International Perspectives in Philosophy and Psychiatry" series, this book takes the readers into the world of those suffering from schizophrenia and manic-depressive illnesses. Using self descriptions, it emphasises on how mental health professionals view sufferers, and on how the patients themselves experience their disorder.

What, if anything, is religious or spiritual delusion? What does religious delusion reveal about the difference between good and bad spirituality? The Abraham Dilemma: A Divine Delusion is the first book written by a philosopher on the topic of religious delusion - on the disorder's causes, contents, consequences, diagnosis and treatment

Within child and adolescent psychiatry, there are a number of potential dilemmas pertaining to diagnosis, treatment, the protection of the child, as well as the child's own developing intelligence and moral judgement. Diagnostic Dilemmas in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry is the first in the IPPP series to explore this highly complex topic.

Emotions and personhood are important notions within the field of mental health care. How they are related is less evident. This book provides a framework for understanding the important and complex relationship between our emotional wellbeing and our sense of self, drawing on psychopathology, philosophy, and phenomenology.

Drawing on philosophical and scientific theory, this book addresses key issues in the philosophy of psychiatry. Philosophical theories are brought to bear on the questions of the explanation of behaviours. It also covers the nature of mental causation, the origins of major disorders, including depression, schizophrenia, and personality disorder.

In 'Unconscious knowing and other essays in psycho-philosophical analysis', Linda Brakel tackles a range of fascinating and puzzling phenomena that lie at the border between psychoanalysis and philosophy of mind. These include - unconscious knowing, vagueness, agency, the placebo effect, and even explanation itself.

The discussion of whether psychopaths are morally responsible for their behaviour has long taken place in philosophy. In recent years this has moved into scientific and psychiatric investigation. Responsibility and Psychopathy discusses this subject from both the philosophical and scientific disciplines, as well as a legal perspective.

Psychiatry as Cognitive Neuroscience is a philosophical analysis of the role of neuroscience in the study of psychopathology. The book examines numerous cognitive neuroscientific methods, such as neuroimaging and the use of neuropsychological models, in the context of a variety of psychiatric disorders, including depression, schizophrenia, dependence syndrome, and personality disorders.

Philosophy, Psychoanalysis, and the A-Rational Mind provides a powerful re-appraisal of psychoanalysis and the role it can play in helping us understand human nature. It explores basic psychological phenomena- beliefs, desires, phantasies, wishes - examining a range of fascinating case histories, and explaining their significance.

With ever more detailed models of the neurobiological and social systems out of which schizophrenia is born, it is possible to overlook how suffering persons actually experience their symptoms.This book examines the experiences of persons who suffer from schizophrenia. It provides a highly readable and humane examination of this common condition.

This book presents a unique examination of mental illness. Though common to many mental disorders, delusions result in actions that, though perhaps rational to the individual, might seem entirely inappropriate or harmful to others. This book shows how we may better understand delusion by examining the nature of compulsion.

Schizophrenia has been investigated predominately from psychological, psychiatric and neurobiological perspectives. This book is unique in examining it from a philosophical point of view. It should appeal to every reader who wants to better understand this major mental illness, providing unique insights into the 'experience' of schizophrenia.

Drawing on a variety of philosophers such as Descartes, Locke, Hume, Wittgenstein, this book explores the nature of personal identity in dementia. It shows how the lives and selfhood of people with dementia can be enhanced by attention to their psychosocial and spiritual environment. It is written by leading figures in psychiatry and philosophy.

Bringing together philosophers and psychiatrists, this book explores the conceptual issues raised by this common illness. Examining the nature of personal identity in dementia, it also shows how the lives and selfhood of people with dementia can be enhanced by attention to their psychosocial and spiritual environment.

Shows how the developments in philosophy and ethics can help us to clarify some of the dilemmas and conflicts around different understandings of madness. This book examines the conflicting ways in which politicians, academics, and mental health professionals appear to understand madness.

This book is a concise introduction to the growing field of philosophy of psychiatry. Divided into the three main aspects of psychiatric clinical judgement, values, meanings and facts, it examines the key debates about mental health care, and the philosophical ideas and tools needed to assess those debates.

Psychiatry presents a unique array of difficult ethical questions. A major challenge is to approach psychiatry in a way that does justice to the real ethical issues. This book show how ethics can engage more closely with the reality of psychiatric practice and how empirical methodologies from the social sciences can help foster this link.

The first edition of The Mind and its Discontents was a powerful analysis of how, as a society, we view mental illness, looking beyond just biological models of mental pathologies. In the ten years since, there has been growing interest in the philosophy of psychiatry, and a new edition of this text is more timely and important than ever.