The Metaphor of Mental Illness (International Perspectives in Philosophy and Psychiatry)

Despite the currency of the notion of mental illness, its legal and medical legitimacy, and the panoply of psychiatric and other mental health services claiming to treat it, there are those who take the radical sceptical line that mental illness is a fabrication. This is a book that 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 the likenesses to which the argument appeals appear when these examples have been categorized as illnesses, rather than the categorization being evidenced by, or derived from, the likenesses. The categorization of ADHD, schizophrenia, and so on, as illnesses is a matter of an imaginative shift into the illness category. The book puts forward a new view and resolution of the issues, to which it carefully guides the reader. It is a book that engages with many 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 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. Despite The Currency Of The Notion Of Mental Illness, There Are Those Who Take The Radical Line That It Is A Fabrication. This Work Takes The Sceptical Line Seriously And Puts Forward A New View On Mental Illness And Proposes A Resolution Of Issues And Disputes In The Field. Introduction : The Existence Of Mental Illness -- The Likeness Argument -- The Categorical Argument -- Metaphor -- Two Metaphors From Physical Medicine -- The Metaphor Of Mental Illness -- Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Social Construction, And Metaphor -- Metaphors And Models. Neil Pickering. Includes Bibliographical References (p. [179]-187) And Index.