| 01 | -T-R--- | 10:00A-11:20A | Duncker / 101 | Plutynski | See instructor | 25 | 22 | 0 |
| Desc: | What is mental health? What is mental illness? This course introduces students to philosophical debates about the nature of mental health, competing theories of mental disorder, and sets such debates in larger social and historical context. We start with a history of the making of the DSM, and debates around declassifying homosexuailty. Then we turn to current debates about contentious cases in psychiatry, such as the personality disorders. Then we turn to movements in contemporary psychiatry toward reform and/or replacement of many of the categories designated as disorders in the DSM. Debates over the validity of such categories led in part to the National Institute of Mental Health's introduction of the Research Domain Criteria (RDoC). Rather than rely upon existing categories of disorder, the RDoC urges attention in research to mapping patterns of symptoms to underlying disorders of specific brain circuits, or neurological and genetic mechanisms. While some embrace the RDoC, others resist it, on a variety of theoretical and practical grounds. Via critical engagement with such debates over the history and current practice of classifying psychiatric disorders, students will gain a sense of how conceptual and methodological concerns arise and are resolved in medicine, as well as how philosophers can provide critical insight into such debates, whether about the nature of health and disease, or about the nature of evidence and explanation in medicine.
Prerequisites: PNP major standing with a 300-level course in philosophy or PNP, graduate standing or the permission of the instructor. Priority given to PNP and Philosophy Undergraduate and graduate students. |
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| Actions: | | Books | | Syllabus | | Syllabi are provided to students to support their course planning; refer to the syllabus for constraints on use. |
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