The Metaphor of Mental IllnessDespite the currency of the notion of mental illness, its legal and medical legitimacy, and the panoply of psychiatry and other mental health services which claim to treat it, there are those who take the radical sceptical line that mental illness is a fabrication. This is a book which takes this sceptical line seriously - perhaps more seriously than almost any other book not written by sceptics themselves. 'The Metaphor of Mental Illness' is a revaluation of the traditional philosophical disputes about the existence and nature of mental illness. Sceptics and apologists have generally focused on the legitimacy of extending illness from the physical to the mental, by means of the likeness argument. This says that claimed mental illnesses, from ADHD to schizophrenia, really are illnesses providing they are sufficiently similar to agreed physical illnesses. This book proposes that this argument is flawed: the likenesses to which the argument appeals appear when these examples have been categorised as illnesses, rather than the categorisation being evidenced by or derived from the likenesses. The categorisation of ADHD, schizophrenia, and so on, as illnesses is a matter of metaphor: an imaginative shift into the illness category. The book puts forward a new view of and resolution of the issues, to which it carefully guides the reader. It is a book which engages with many contemporary issues and styles of analysis, but is accessible to anyone not familiar with these. It is full of examples, both historical and modern. It is a book both for the postgraduate student coming to grips with the issues for the first time, for the researcher who is interested in a new approach to the issues, and for mental health workers such as psychiatrists who are interested in the fundamental assumptions of their field of work. |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
ADHD behaviours alcoholism antipsychiatry appear applied approach argued assumption beliefs Blondis Bloor body Boorse called causal Chalmers Champlin chapter chicken cholera cholera claim Claridge's concept context correlations cowpox created described descriptive resources developed diagnoses disorder distinction dualism dysfunction evidence example explain fact Fulford genetic human hyperactivity hyperkinesis hypertension hypomania ical idea of ADHD idea of mental identified incoherence argument individual insanity interest internally related involves judgement logical positivists look machine madness Mannheim means medicine mental illness exist metaphor mind moral moral treatment nature notion of mental observation particular Pasteur perhaps phrenia physical illness planets political possible problem psychiatry radical questions recategorization refer represents role Rorty sceptic schizo schizophrenia scientific scientists Scull seems sense simply social constructionism social constructionist sociology of knowledge someone sort specific strong programme suggest symptoms theory Thomas Szasz thought tion understand unmasking vaccination word