Madness and Reason. An Introduction to Philosophy of Psychiatry

What is a normal mind? Are reason and madness mutually exclusive? Or, maybe, do they condition one another? Can societies be mad in addition to individuals? Are there any benefits to alternative states of mind? What is it like to subjectively experience delusions and hallucinations? This course addresses the problem of norm and pathology in relation to the mind. Issues addressed include various postulated ontologies of mental disorders, competing diagnostic models, the question of expertise in psychiatry and clinical psychology, the lived world in mental illness, the cognitive status of delusions, intersubjective and social aspects of mental health, and medicalization of alternative ways of experiencing the world. The course introduces major topics discussed in contemporary philosophy of psychiatry from a perspective that combines philosophy of mind, philosophy of science, and clinical phenomenology.

1) Introduction

2) Statistical vs normative meaning of norm and pathology

3) Mental disorder: between vice and virtue

4) Phenomenological Psychopathology

5) The lived experience of mania and depression

6) The vicious circle of addiction

7) The disturbance of the minimal self in schizophrenia

8) Philosophy as psychotherapy: phenomenology and existentialism

9) Psychopharmacology and the neurochemical self

10) Psychiatry as biopolitics

11) The myth of mental illness and anti-psychiatry

12) Different diagnostic models and their ontologies

13) Intuitive and operationalized diagnosis

14) Neurodiversity and human condition

15) Conclusions

B. Fulford et. al. The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy and Psychiatry, Oxford UP 2013.

B. Fulford, Bill et. al. The Oxford Textbook of Philosophy and Psychiatry, Oxford UP 2006.

G. Stanghellini et. Al. The Oxford Handbook of Phenomenological Psychopathology, Oxford UP 2019.

J. Radden, ed. Philosophy of Psychiatry, A Companion, Oxford UP 2004

N. Ghaemi, The concepts of Psychiatry. A Pluralistic Approach to the Mind and Mental Illness, John Hopkins UP 2003.

P.R. McHugh, P.R. Slavney, The Perspectives of Psychiatry, John Hopkins UP 2003.

After completing the course, the students should:

1. know the relation between philosophy (theoretical reflection) and the practice of psychiatry and clinical psychology

2. understand the concepts of mental illness, disease, and health;

3. be able to discuss the social, cultural, and historical constraints of medical practice