The Disordered Mind: An Introduction to Philosophy of Mind and Mental Illness

303 Pages·2010·2.23 MB·English

by  George Graham

The Disordered Mind
“George Graham is contemporary philosophy’s most gifted and humane writer. The
Disordered Mind is a wise, deep, and thorough inquiry into the nature of the human
mind and the various ‘creaks, cracks, and crevices’ into which it is prone sometimes
to wander.”
Owen Flanagan, Duke University, USA
“The book is a success, it is consistently insightful and humane, and conveys a clear
understanding not only of relevant philosophical topics, but also of a much more
difficult issue, the relevance of those topics to understanding mental illness.”
Philip Gerrans, University of Adelaide, Australia
“The Disordered Mind is a must read for anyone who is a psychiatrist, psychologist,
philosopher, neurologist, or mental health worker. Indeed, it is a must read for any
thoughtful person who simply desires to understand more deeply and more realistically
the workings of their own mind as well as the workings of the human mind in general.”
Richard Garrett, Bentley University, USA
Mental disorder raises profound questions about the nature of the mind. The Disordered
Mind: An Introduction to Philosophy of Mind and Mental Illness is the first book to system-
atically examine and explain, from a philosophical standpoint, what mental disorder is: its
reality, causes, consequences, and more. It is also an outstanding introduction to philosophy
of mind from the perspective of mental disorder.
Each chapter explores a central question or problem about mental disorder, including:
• What is mental disorder and can it be distinguished from neurological disorder?
• What roles should reference to psychological, cultural, and social factors play in the
medical/scientific understanding of mental disorder?
• What makes mental disorders undesirable? Are they diseases?
• Mental disorder and the mind–body problem
• Is mental disorder a breakdown of rationality? What is a rational mind?
• Addiction, responsibility, and compulsion
• Ethical dilemmas posed by mental disorder, including questions of dignity and self-respect.
Each topic is clearly explained and placed in both a clinical and philosophical context. Mental
disorders discussed include clinical depression, dissociative identity disorder, anxiety, religious
delusions, and paranoia. Several non-mental neurological disorders that possess psychological
symptoms are also examined, including Alzheimer’s disease, Down’s syndrome, and Tourette’s
syndrome. Additional features, such as chapter summaries and annotated further reading,
provide helpful tools for those coming to the subject for the first time.
Throughout, George Graham draws expertly on issues that cut across philosophy, science and
psychiatry. As such, The Disordered Mind is a superb introduction to the philosophy of mental
disorder for students of philosophy, psychology, psychiatry, and related mental health professions.
George Graham is Professor of Philosophy and Neuroscience at Georgia State University
and a past president of the Society for Philosophy and Psychology. He is co-author and
co-editor of the Oxford Textbook of Philosophy and Psychiatry (2006).

The Disordered Mind

An Introduction to Philosophy
of Mind and Mental Illness
George Graham
First published 2010
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
270 Madison Avenue, New Yor k, NY 10016
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an infor ma business
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2010.
To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s
collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.
© 2010 George Graham
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised
in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or
hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information
storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Graham, George, 1945-
The disordered mind: an introduction to philosophy of mind and mental illness / George Graham.
p.; cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Mental illness. 2. Philosophy of mind. 3. Psychiatry – Philosophy. 4. Psychophysiology. I. Title.
[DNLM: 1. Mental Disorders – psychology. 2. Philosophy, Medical. 3. Psychophysiology. WM 140 G739d 2009]
RC437.5.G726 2009
616.89 – dc22
2009033537
ISBN 0-203-85786-0 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN 10: 0-415-77471-3 (hbk)
ISBN 10: 0-415-77472-1 (pbk)
ISBN 10: 0-203-85786-0 (ebk)
ISBN 13: 978-0-415-77471-0 (hbk)
ISBN 13: 978-0-415-77472-7 (pbk)
ISBN 13: 978-0-203-85786-1 (ebk)
We are . . . subject to infirmities, miseries, interrupted, tossed and tumbled up and
down . . . uncertain [and] brittle, and so is all that we trust unto. And he that knows
not this, and is not armed to endure it, is not fit to live in this world.
Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy (1621)
And I have asked to be
Where no storms come,
Where the green swell is in the havens dumb,
And out of the swing of the sea.
Gerard Manley Hopkins, “Heaven-Haven,” Poems (1918)
To try to be happy is to try to build a machine with no other specification than that it
shall run noiselessly.
J. Robert Oppenheimer, Letters and Recollections (1980)

Contents
Acknowledgments xi
Preface xiii
1 Introduction 1
Stability and instability 1
One brief history 4
What is this book about? 7
Topics and themes 11
Chapter summary and suggested readings 16
2 Conceiving mental disorder 19
Mental disorder has consequences 19
What should a theory of mental disorder do? 20
The mind of mental disorder 29
Exemplars of mental disorder 36
Roles of the mental in mental disorder 40
Chapter summary and suggested readings 43
3 The disorder of mental disorder 45
What makes mental disorder undesirable? 45
Morally therapeutic interlude and lure of the disease model 48
Are mental disorders diseases? 53
A problematic disorder and the place of DSM 63
Chapter summary and suggested readings 69
vIII CONTENTS
4 On being skeptical about mental disorder 71
Mental disorder and the mind/body problem 72
Mental disorder and respect for persons 89
Chapter summary and suggested readings 97
5 Seeking norms for mental disorder 99
Despair, depression and disorder 99
Anxiety and DSM 102
Cultural conventionalism 108
Mind maladapted 113
Rationality and Intentionality 117
Logic of its own 127
A brief on incapacities and disabilities 131
Chapter summary and suggested readings 134
6 An original position 137
Social order, mental order and veils of ignorance 139
The importance of conscious experience 142
Basic psychological capacities 145
A concept of mental disorder 156
Chapter summary and suggested readings 156
7 Addiction and responsibility for self 159
Impulse, inhibition and responsibility for self 162
Compulsion and addiction 166
Animal models 172
Neural models 174
One way in which the brain may gum up the works 179
Chapter summary and suggested readings 184
8 Reality lost and found 187
Symptom and schizophrenia 187
Grand delusions 193
Delusion and self-comprehension 203
Realism among the ruins? 211
Paranoia, benevolence and imagination 214
Chapter summary and suggested readings 222
9 Minding the missing me 225
Me, myself and my selves 225
CONTENTS Ix
‘I am dead’ but don’t mean it 239
Self-serving in a supermarket 244
Chapter summary and suggested readings 253
Epilogue: the final affliction – Copenhagen interpretation 255
Bibliography 267
Index 283