Reconceiving Schizophrenia

Schizophrenia arguably is the most troubling, puzzling, and complex mentalillness. No single discipline is equipped to understand it. Though schizophreniahas been investigated predominately from psychological, psychiatric andneurobiological perspectives, few attempts have been made to apply the tool kitof philosophy to schizophrenia, the mix of global analysis, conceptual insight,and argumentative clarity that is indicative of a philosophical perspective. This book is a major effort at redressing that imbalance. Recent developmentsin the area of philosophy known as the philosophy of psychiatry have made itclear that it is time for philosophy to contribute to our understanding ofschizophrenia. The range of contributions is many and varied. Some contributorsare professional philosophers; some not. Some contributions focus on matters ofmethod and history. Others argue for dramatic reforms in our understanding ofschizophrenia or its symptoms. The authors in this book are committed to theidea that philosophy can indeed help to understand schizophrenia in a way whichis different from but complements traditional medical-clinical approaches. The book should appeal to every reader who wants to better understand a majormental illness, including its distinctive character, conscious content, andsources of puzzlement. Readers will find the essays gathered here affordstimulating insights into the human mind and its conditions ofvulnerability.

Man Cheung Chung earned his B.A. in Psychology and Sociology at the University of Guelph, Canada, and PhD at the University of Sheffield, United Kingdom. He worked as a Research Psychologist at University College London. He then took on a Research Fellowship at the University of Birmingham and subsequently held lectureships at the Universities of Wolverhampton and Sheffield. He is now a Reader in the Clinical Psychology Teaching Unit at the University of Plymouth. He is also an Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society. His research interests include history and philosophy of psychology and health/clinical psychology. He has published over 100 articles and chapters in the foregoing areas as well as on other diverse topics.
Before joining the faculty of Wake Forest in 2003, Graham served for more than twenty-five years on the faculty at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), including seventeen as philosophy department chair. Graham's research focuses on topics in philosophy of mind, cognitive science, and psychiatry.