Mental Health: Philosophical Perspectives

The concept 'health' is ambiguous [18, 9, 11]. The concept 'mental health' is even more so. 'Health' compasses senses of well-being, wholeness, and sound ness that mean more than the simple freedom from illness - a fact appreci ated in the World Health Organization's definition of health as more than the absence of disease or infirmity [7]. The wide range of viewpoints of the con tributors to this volume attests to the scope of issues placed under the rubric 'mental health. ' These papers, presented at the Fourth Symposium on Philos ophy and Medicine, were written and discussed within a broad context of interests concerning mental health. Moreover, in their diversity these papers point to the many descriptive, evaluative, and, in fact, performative functions of statements concerning mental health. Before introducing the substance of these papers in any detail, I want to indicate the profound commerce between philosophical and psychological ideas in theories of mental health and disease. This will be done in part by a consideration of some conceptual developments in the history of psychiatry, as well as through an analysis of some of the functions of the notions of mental illness and health. 'Mental health' lays a special stress on the wholeness of human intuition, emotion, thought, and action.

Section I / American Legal Perspectives on Insanity: Some Roots in the Nineteenth Century. - American Medico-Legal Traditions and Concepts of Mental Health: The Nineteenth Century. - Philosophical Reflections in the Nineteenth Century Medicolegal Discussion. - Section II / Mental Illness and Mental Complaints: Some Conceptual Presuppositions. - How Much Neurosis Should We Bear? . - Psychic Health, Mental Clarity, Self-Knowledge and Other Virtues. - Models and Mental Illness. - Disease Viewed as a Symbolic Category. - Health and Disease: The Holistic Approach. - Section III / Phenomenological and Speculative Views of Mental Illness. - A Metabletic-Philosophical Evaluation of Mental Health. - Synchronism and Therapy. - Commemorative Remarks in Honor of Erwin W. Straus. - Bibliography of the Works of Erwin W. Straus. - Environments of the Mind. - Luminosity: The Unconscious in the Integrated Person. - Body, Mind, and Conditions of Novelty: Some Remarks on Leonard C. Feldstein s Luminosity. - Section IV / Acting Freely and Acting in Good Health. - Motivational Disturbances and Free Will. - Towards an Understanding of Motivational Disturbance and Freedom of Action: Comments on `Motivational Disturbances and Free Will . - Section V / The Myth of Mental Illness: A Further Examination. - The Concept of Mental Illness: Explanation or Justification? . - Szasz on Mental Illness. - Section VI / Reappraising the Concepts of Mental Health and Disease. - H. Tristram Engelhardt Jr. / Chairman s Remarks. - Closing Reflections. - Notes on Contributors.