Philosophy of Psychiatry

Catalog description

The philosophy of psychiatry is an area of inquiry dealing with topics at the intersection of philosophy and the study of mental illness. Accordingly, students in this course will engage with questions like: What is the difference between healthy and dysfunctional psychological traits, behaviors, and emotions? Is this a medical or philosophical concept? Are psychiatric illnesses disorders of the mind or the brain? Do social and political values influence our determination that someone is psychologically abnormal? If so, what are the implications that follow from this for psychiatric categories like “depression” and “schizophrenia” that claim to track objective, scientifically “real” disorders? How have our concepts of “madness” and “insanity” shifted over time, and what explains these changes?