The Philosophy of Psychiatry: A Companion

Philosophical questions have little obvious relevance for most medical specialities. If you are faced with a patient suffering from a broken leg or the measles the concept of “normality” is so obvious both to you and to the patient that neither of you need to think about it at all. A quick gabble through the Hippocratic Oath as part of a single lecture on ethics is more than enough for most clinicians. Psychiatry, by contrast, is enmeshed in philosophical concepts. As soon as it broke free from theological ideas of an external force – “the devil” possessing the patient –...