Causal Concepts in Psychopathology
Causal Concepts in Psychopathology
Josef Parnas, University of Copenhagen
Peter Zachar, Auburn University, Montgomery
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USDCausality extends across many areas of psychiatry, from the purely conceptual and philosophical to the interpretation of genetic, epidemiological, and neurobiological work. This book offers new, interdisciplinary perspectives on causation in psychopathology, exploring it in relation to the latest scientific and philosophical advances, as well as through psychiatric research and practice. It features contributions from many internationally known psychologists, clinical researchers, and philosophers of science actively studying the phenomenology of mental illness. The chapters are organized into four sections: The Causes Themselves; Causes, Genes, and Neuroscience; Causality and Nosology; and Causality and Phenomenology. Each main chapter is preceded by a brief introduction written by the editors and a commentary by another author in this volume. By taking a multidisciplinary approach spanning psychiatry, philosophy, and psychology, the book is written to be accessible for members of all three disciplines.
- Offers a plurality of perspectives on causation in psychopathology
- Discusses causation in relation to the latest scientific and philosophical advances
- Promotes interdisciplinary communication, covering psychiatry, philosophy, and psychology
Reviews & endorsements
‘The Editors have collected a wide range of chapters on causal concepts in psychopathology, reflecting current thinking on this major topic, from multiple perspectives, across philosophy, psychiatry and the basic sciences, from Anglo-American and European traditions, integrating research and clinical perspectives.' Derek Bolton, Professor of Philosophy Psychopathology, King's College London, UK
‘Clinicians and scientists in mental health spend a lot of time thinking about causes, though typically in informal, casual ways gathered through training and experience. This fascinating collection of essays by our smartest thinkers in causation coaches the reader out of this informal thinking and into an expansive realm of systematic, careful thinking, expanding our abilities to hypothesize and explain things, whether in the clinic or the laboratory.' John Z. Sadler, Daniel W. Foster, M.D. Professor of Medical Ethics, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, USA
‘Like others in this series of conference proceedings, the volume's essay-and-response structure allows the reader to sit in on an ongoing exchange with experts who have not only thought long and hard about the topic, but who have thought long and hard in conversation with one another. The result of these regular collaborations over the years between psychologists, psychiatrists, and philosophers has been the development of a cumulative vocabulary and shared understanding that have played a foundational role in shaping the young field of philosophy of psychiatry. This latest volume is no different – it gathers together some of the most significant theorists not just of causation in psychiatry, but of causation writ large. The result is essays that apply the most exciting thinking about causation from across the disciplines to some of the most enduring explanatory challenges facing psychiatry. It will, moving forward, be the first port of call for anyone interested in the topic.' Kathryn Tabb, Assistant Professor of Philosophy, Bard College, USA
Product details
December 2025Hardback
9781009390637
502 pages
229 × 152 mm
Not yet published - available from December 2025
Table of Contents
- Acknowledgements
- List of terms and their abbreviations
- List of tables and figures
- Introduction
- Part I. Struggle to Conceal:
- 1. Protecting bad intel in a dirty war
- 2. Secret-keepers and mythmakers
- 3. 'Operation legacy'
- 4. The scramble for Kenya's history and the making of an archival limbo
- Part II. Struggle to Reveal:
- 5. International archival (B)orders
- 6. 'The memory of a nation:' the co-development of Kenya and its archives
- 7. Decolonization and the struggle for Kenya's 'migrated archive's'
- Conclusion
- Appendix
- Bibliography
- Index.
