Psychiatry, Realism, and Science: Essays in the Philosophy of Psychiatry

The legitimacy of psychiatry as a medical disciplineis often challenged. Anti-psychiatric arguments fallbroadly into two categories: the metaphysical and theepistemological. Critics of psychiatry frequentlyappeal to one or more of these arguments to discredit thefield and to subvert the social power thatpsychiatrists and mental health workers use tocontrol of the behaviour of people who are allegedlymentally ill. If these arguments had or gainedtraction, there would be reason to be suspicious ofthe practice of psychiatry and to be hesitant toinvest increasingly scarce resources into theresearch programs in mental health. In this work, Ishow that psychiatry can be defended against majorlines of anti-psychiatric thought. I do so byexploring what it means for an illness to be real"what it means for a field to be scientific orobjective and what it means for a condition to be adisorder. This work will be of interest to all whoseinterests span psychiatry health illness medicineand science."