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  • Published: 4 May 2021
  • ISBN: 9780262045643
  • Imprint: MIT Press Academic
  • Format: Hardback
  • Pages: 640
  • RRP: $260.00

Defining Mental Disorder

Jerome Wakefield and His Critics




Philosophers discuss Jerome Wakefield's influential view of mental disorder as "harmful dysfunction," with detailed responses from Wakefield himself.

Philosophers discuss Jerome Wakefield's influential view of mental disorder as "harmful dysfunction," with detailed responses from Wakefield himself.

One of the most pressing theoretical problems of psychiatry is the definition of mental disorder. Jerome Wakefield's proposal that mental disorder is "harmful dysfunction" has been both influential and widely debated; philosophers have been notably skeptical about it. This volume provides the first book-length collection of responses by philosophers to Wakefield's harmful dysfunction analysis (HDA), offering a survey of philosophical critiques as well as extensive and detailed replies by Wakefield himself.

  • Published: 4 May 2021
  • ISBN: 9780262045643
  • Imprint: MIT Press Academic
  • Format: Hardback
  • Pages: 640
  • RRP: $260.00

Praise for Defining Mental Disorder

"Gifted with clinical, research, and philosophical skills, Dr Wakefield has become the world's leading figure in spelling out the meaning of mental disorder and its implications... has the potential to change in the scope of future DSM's and to have broad implications for psychiatric research, clinical work, epidemiology, and forensics." --George Graham

Dr Wakefield: Gifted with clinical, research, and philosophical skills, Dr Wakefield has become the world's leading figure in spelling out the meaning of mental disorder and its implications. His views are the most carefully developed in the field, the ones to be reckoned with and he is well known both within the profession and to the public.
Impact: Dr Wakefield's work has the potential to change in the scope of future DSM's and to have broad implications for psychiatric research, clinical work, epidemiology, and forensics.

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