It is only in the past 20 years that the concept of 'recovery' from mental health has been more widely considered and researched. Before then, it was generally considered that 'stability' was the best that anyone suffering from a mental disorder could hope for. But now it is recognised that, throughout their mental illness, many patients develop new beliefs, feelings, values, attitudes, and ways of dealing with their disorder. The notion of recovery from mental illness is thus rapidly being accepted and is inserting more hope into mainstream psychiatry and other parts of the mental health care system around the world. Yet, in spite of conceptual and other challenges that this notion raises, including a variety of interpretations, there is scarcely any systematic philosophical discussion of it. This book is unique in addressing philosophical issues - including conceptual challenges and opportunities - raised by the notion of recovery of people with mental illness. Such recovery - particularly in relation to serious mental illness such as schizophrenia - is often not about cure and can mean different things to different people. For example, it can mean symptom alleviation, ability to work, or the striving toward mental well-being (with or without symptoms). The book addresses these different meanings and their philosophical grounds, bringing to the fore perspectives of people with mental illness and their families as well as perspectives of philosophers, mental health care providers and researchers, among others. The important new work will contribute to further research, reflective practice and policy making in relation to the recovery of people with mental illness.It is essential reading for philosophers of health, psychiatrists, and other mental care providers, as well as policy makers.

It is only in the past 20 years that the concept of 'recovery' from mental health has been more widely considered and researched. This book is unique in addressing philosophical issues - including conceptual challenges and opportunities - raised by the notion of recovery of people with mental illness.

This volume is meant for readers to gain a deeper grasp of the challenges, unique to the present age, for realizing a genuinely peaceful order as well as to consider thoughtful proposals for meeting these challenges.

This handbook incisively explores challenges and opportunities that exist in efforts aimed at addressing inequities in mental health provision across the globe. Drawing on various disciplines across the humanities, psychology, and social sciences it charts the emergence of Global Mental Health as a field of study. It critically reflects on efforts and interventions being made to globalize mental health policies, and discusses key themes relevant for understanding and supporting the mental health needs of people living in diverse socio-economical and cultural environments. Over three rich sections, the handbook critically engages with Global Mental Health discourses. To help guide future efforts to support mental health and wellbeing in different parts of the world, the third section of the handbook consists of case studies of innovative mental health policy and practice, which are presented from a variety of different perspectives. This seminal handbook will appeal to a transnational community of post-graduate students, academics and practitioners, from global health to transcultural psychiatry and medical anthropology. It will be also of interest to researchers and clinical practitioners, policy makers and non-governmental organisations involved in cross-cultural mental health work.

In this edited volume a group of leading thinkers in psychiatry, psychology, and philosophy offer alternative perspectives that address both the scientific and clinical aspects of psychiatric validation, emphasizing throughout their philosophical and historical considerations.

The revisions of both DSM-IV and ICD-10 have again focused the interest of the field of psychiatry and clinical psychology on the questions of nosology. This work reviews issues within psychiatric nosology from clinical, historical and particularly philosophical perspectives. It brings together an interdisciplinary group of distinguished authors

A recent wave of research in psychiatry and neuroscience has re-examined the properties of “classic” psychedelic substances - also known as serotonergic hallucinogens - such as psilocybin, LSD, and DMT. Evidence to date suggests that psychedelics can be given safely in controlled conditions, at moderate to high doses, and may have potential as therapeutic agents in the treatment of various addictive and mood disorders. The main mechanism of action appears to be the induction of a dramatically altered state of consciousness, but the details of how psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy works are hotly debated, as are the relations between psychedelic experiences themselves and the neural changes induced by the drugs. Philosophical Perspectives on Psychedelic Psychiatry addresses the fascinating philosophical questions raised by the renewed psychiatric use of psychedelics, with chapters from leading philosophers of mind, science, and psychiatry centred around three main themes. Chapters in the “self and mind” section ask: what can we learn about the self and the mind from psychedelic science? Chapters in the “science and psychiatry” section address methodological, theoretical, and clinical questions concerning how psychedelics can best be studied scientifically and used therapeutically, and how they might work to relieve psychiatric suffering. Finally, chapters in the “ethics and spirituality” section address broader questions about the interpretation of psychedelic experience, its ethical implications, and its possible role(s) in the broader culture.

Psychiatry has long struggled with the nature of its diagnoses. The problems raised by questions about the nature of psychiatric illness are particularly fascinating because they sit at the intersection of philosophy, empirical psychiatric/psychological research, measurement theory, historical tradition and policy. In being the only medical specialty that diagnoses and treats mental illness, psychiatry has been subject to major changes in the last 150 years. This book explores the forces that have shaped these changes and especially how substantial "internal" advances in our knowledge of the nature and causes of psychiatric illness have interacted with a plethora of external forces that have impacted on the psychiatric profession. It includes contributions from philosophers of science with an interest in psychiatry, psychiatrists and psychologists with expertise in the history of their field and historians of psychiatry. Each chapter is accompanied by an introduction and a commentary. The result is a dynamic discussion about the nature of psychiatric disorders, and a book that is compelling reading for those in the field of mental health, history of science and medicine, and philosophy.

The Philosophy of Psychiatry is a unique area of research because the nature of the subject matter leads to quite distinct methodological issues. Naturalism, Interpretation, and Mental Disorder is an original new work focusing on the challenges we face when trying to interpret and understand mental illness. The book integrates a hermeneutical perspective, and shows how such an approach can reveal important facts about historical sources in psychiatry and the nature of dialogue in the therapeutic encounter. In addition, the book demonstrates how such an approach can be valuable for understanding the concept of mental disorder itself. Naturalism, Interpretation, and Mental Disorder brings fresh thinking to the philosophy of psychiatry, and will be of interest to students and scholars in the fields of Mental Health and Philosophy.

This key text book presents a critical overview of the main theoretical perspectives relevant to mental health practice and argues that no one theory provides a comprehensive framework for practice. By examining traditional models of mental health, as well as new, it challenges some of the accepted views in the field and illustrates the importance of recognising the contribution, strengths and limitations of the range of different ideas. Part of Palgrave's Foundations of Mental Health Practice series, this is indispensable reading for any one studying or working in mental health, whether as a nurse or social worker.