Reviews
This is a serious and important book... it is certainly one that researchers, scholars and anyone involved in trying to explain the nature of psychiatric disorders to a skeptical audience ought to read.
This book asks the right questions, and sends us in the right direction.
A good collection of papers... Will be of most interest to specialists in the area of philosophy of psychiatry (and to philosophers of mind and psychology)
Kendler and Parnas undertake this exploration in a readable, cogent manner in Philosophical Issues in Psychiatry... The authors go to great lengths to ensure that the book is accessible for those with a limited background in philosophy.
Few books on psychiatry explore with seriousness and clarity the difficult problems of explanation, scientific description, and causality. This one does. The introductions are like having an articulate and patient professor at your shoulder. The material is discussed by first-rate people in their fields, and the commentaries prevent the discussion from becoming static or predictable. I hope this sophisticated book will be read widely and considered carefully.
Book Details
List of Contributors
Preface
Introduction. Why Does Psychiatry Need Philosophy?
Part I: Explanation
Chapter 1.Explaining Complex Behavior
Chapter 2. Etiological Models in Psychiatry: Reductive and
List of Contributors
Preface
Introduction. Why Does Psychiatry Need Philosophy?
Part I: Explanation
Chapter 1.Explaining Complex Behavior
Chapter 2. Etiological Models in Psychiatry: Reductive and Nonreductive Approaches
Chapter 3. Levels of Explanation in Psychiatry
Chapter 4. Cause and Explanation in Psychiatry: An Interventionist Perspective
Chapter 5. Causation in Psychiatry
Part II: Phenomenology
Chapter 6. Varieties of "Phenomenology": On Description, Understanding, and Explanation in Psychiatry
Chapter 7. Self-agency and Mental Causality
Part III: Nosology
Chapter 8. Real Kinds but No True Taxonomy: An Essay in Psychiatric Systematics
Chapter 9. The Incredible Insecurity of Psychiatric Nosology
Epilogue
Index