Full metadata
Title
"Mental Illnesses Are Illnesses Like Any Other": An Inquiry and Critique
Description
I examined the slogan, “Mental illnesses are illnesses like any other,” widespread in psychiatry and medicine, and in society more generally, to determine if it accurately and usefully characterizes mental illnesses, given current neurological and neurophysiological knowledge. Rather than focus on disease entities for comparison, I scrutinized the symptoms of somatic illnesses and mental illnesses and compared them in three areas: their production, their relationship to social and cultural context, and their potential use as indicators of underlying disease or dysfunction. In all three areas, I found that, contrary to the claim of the slogan, the symptoms of mental illness are not like the symptoms of somatic illness and therefore, by extension, mental illness is not “illness like any other.” I briefly surveyed the implications of this difference between mental illnesses and somatic illnesses, and provided some broad suggestions regarding how this finding might help to inform the characterization of mental illnesses, as well as help direct research and treatment of these conditions.
Date Created
2024
Contributors
- Dennert, James (Author)
- Robert, Jason (Thesis advisor)
- Creath, Richard (Thesis advisor)
- Phillips, Ben (Committee member)
- Neisewander, Janet (Committee member)
- Maienschein, Jane (Committee member)
- Arizona State University (Publisher)
Topical Subject
Resource Type
Extent
123 pages
Language
eng
Copyright Statement
In Copyright
Primary Member of
Peer-reviewed
No
Open Access
No
Handle
https://hdl.handle.net/2286/R.2.N.193427
Level of coding
minimal
Cataloging Standards
Note
Partial requirement for: Ph.D., Arizona State University, 2024
Field of study: History and Philosophy of Science
System Created
- 2024-05-02 01:31:59
System Modified
- 2024-05-02 01:32:06
- 6 months 1 week ago
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