Alien Landscapes?
Interpreting Disordered Minds
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- US$34.99
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- US$34.99
출판사 설명
We have made huge progress in understanding the biology of mental illnesses, but comparatively little in interpreting them at the psychological level. The eminent philosopher Jonathan Glover believes that there is real hope of progress in the human interpretation of disordered minds.
The challenge is that the inner worlds of people with psychiatric disorders can seem strange, like alien landscapes, and this strangeness can deter attempts at understanding. Do people with disorders share enough psychology with other people to make interpretation possible? To explore this question, Glover tackles the hard cases—the inner worlds of hospitalized violent criminals, of people with delusions, and of those diagnosed with autism or schizophrenia. Their first-person accounts offer glimpses of inner worlds behind apparently bizarre psychiatric conditions and allow us to begin to learn the “language” used to express psychiatric disturbance. Art by psychiatric patients, or by such complex figures as van Gogh and William Blake, give insight when interpreted from Glover’s unique perspective. He also draws on dark chapters in psychiatry’s past to show the importance of not medicalizing behavior that merely transgresses social norms. And finally, Glover suggests values, especially those linked with agency and identity, to guide how the boundaries of psychiatry should be drawn.
Seamlessly blending philosophy, science, literature, and art, Alien Landscapes? is both a sustained defense of humanistic psychological interpretation and a compelling example of the rich and generous approach to mental life for which it argues.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Glover (Causing Death and Saving Lives), professor of ethics at the School of Law, King's College, London, attempts a close encounter of the intellectual kind as he probes the ethical aspects of mental disorders and opens up new terrain in an age-old discussion. Responding to the long-standing discord between humanist and scientific perspectives on mental illness an imbalance that consistently favors science Glover aims to restore humanist views to the discussion through a sensitive examination of art, literature, and, perhaps most noteworthy, interviews with people who have mental disorders. One of Glover's central points is that moral values can shed light on how mental illness is interpreted, and indeed discussion of interpretation guides a good portion of the book. Glover's background in philosophy and ethics gives the discussion a decisively philosophical slant. The humanist point of view is often expressed esoterically. Such an approach feels alien to those who come to the topic exclusively interested in mental disorder. For the philosophically inclined, though, Glover's exploration will prove to be an exciting and informative text.
