Books in the International Perspectives in Philosophy & Psychiatry series

Technology has had, and will continue to have, a major effect on the field of psychiatry - in diagnosis, treatment, and prevention. In a collection of stimulating and thought-provoking chapters, this book exams how technology has come to influence and drive psychiatry forward, and considers at just what cost these developments have been made.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.