Wittgenstein and the limits of empathic understanding in psychopathology

Int Rev Psychiatry. 2004 Aug;16(3):216-24. doi: 10.1080/09540260400003933.

Abstract

The aim of this paper is three-fold. Firstly, to briefly set out how strategic choices made about theorising about intentionality or content have actions at a distance for accounting for delusion. Secondly, to investigate how successfully a general difficulty facing a broadly interpretative approach to delusions might be eased by the application of any of three Wittgensteinian interpretative tools. Thirdly, to draw a general moral about how the later Wittgenstein gives more reason to be pessimistic than optimistic about the prospects of a philosophical psychopathology aimed at empathic understanding of delusions.

MeSH terms

  • Cognition*
  • Delusions
  • Empathy*
  • Humans
  • Mental Disorders / psychology*
  • Philosophy*