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."
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