Full Description
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.
Contents
PART I: NATURE OF HISTORICAL CHANGE IN SCIENCE; SECTION 1: OBJECTIVITY AND SCIENTIFIC CHANGE; SECTION 2: CHANGE IN PSYCHOPATHOLOGY; SECTION 3: SCIENTIFIC DISAGREEMENT IN THE MEDICAL CONTEXT; SECTION 4: THE SOCIAL, THE CULTURAL, AND PSYCHIATRIC KINDS; PART II: HISTORY OF BROAD MOVEMENTS/STRUCTURES WITHIN PSYCHIATRY; SECTION 5: THE PSYCHIATRIC HISTORY OF THE DIENCEPHALON; SECTION 6: THE HISTORY OF PSYCHIATRY AS INTERDISCIPLINARY HISTORY; SECTION 7: PSYCHIATRY AND PSYCHOANALYSIS IN THE UNITED STATES; SECTION 8: THE OPERATIONAL REVOLUTION; SECTION 9: THE EVOLUTION OF GENETIC EXPLANATION IN PSYCHIATRY; SECTION 10: PSYCHIATRY AND EVOLUTION; PART III: SPECIFIC DISORDERS FROM AN HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE; SECTION 11: SCHIZOPHRENIA AND THE DOPAMINE HYPOTHESIS; SECTION 12: CONCEPTUAL STATUS OF DEPRESSION TODAY; SECTION 13: THE SHAPING OF AUTISM; SECTION 14: THE DECISION TO INCLUDE OR EXCLUDE A DIAGNOSIS IN PSYCHIATRIC NOSOLOGY: THE CASE OF PREMENSTRUAL DYSPHORIC DISORDER
