Mental health and mental illness: Some problems of definition and concept formation

Philosophy of Science 39 (3):341-365 (1972)
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Abstract

In recent years there has been considerable discussion and controversy concerning the concepts of mental health and mental illness. The controversy has centered around the problem of providing criteria for an adequate conception of mental health and illness, as well as difficulties in specifying a clear and workable system for the classification, understanding, and treatment of psychological and emotional disorders. In this paper I shall examine a cluster of these complex and important issues, focusing on attempts to define ‘mental health’ and ‘mental illness’; diverse factors influencing the ascription of the predicates ‘is mentally ill’ and ‘is mentally healthy’; and some specific problems concerning these concepts as they appear in various theories of psychopathology. The approach here will be in the nature of a survey, directed at the specification of a number of problems—conceptual, methodological, and pragmatic—as they arise in various attempts to define and to provide criteria for applying the concepts of mental health and mental illness.

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Citations of this work

Health as a theoretical concept.Christopher Boorse - 1977 - Philosophy of Science 44 (4):542-573.
What a theory of mental health should be.Christopher Boorse - 1976 - Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour 6 (1):61–84.
Rethinking Health: Healthy or Healthier than?S. Andrew Schroeder - 2013 - British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 64 (1):131-159.
The autonomy of the mentally ill: A case-study in individualistic ethics.Nathaniel Laor - 1984 - Philosophy of the Social Sciences 14 (3):331-349.
Mind, Brain and Mental Illness.Leslie Stevenson - 1977 - Philosophy 52 (199):27 - 43.

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References found in this work

Science and human behavior.B. F. Skinner - 1954 - Revue Philosophique de la France Et de l'Etranger 144:268-269.
Psychotherapy & Morality: A Study of Two Concepts.Joseph Margolis - 1966 - Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 27 (1):141-142.

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