Professor Duff Waring
dwaring@yorku.ca
Office Location:  S428 Ross Building
Phone Number:  (416) 736-2100 Ext. 33522

Is schizophrenia a brain disease or is it better understood as a troubled mode of being-in-the-world? There has been a recent growth in philosophy of psychiatry that draws heavily on two philosophic traditions. Analytic philosophy is applied to better understand psychiatry through an analysis of its fundamental concepts. There is much unease about these concepts and the extent to which some of them are equivocal as between moral and biomedical interpretations. Indeed, this unease runs through the concept of mental disorder itself. [1] The phenomenological/existential tradition is applied to better understand the lived experience of those diagnosed with mental disorders and to compliment a neuroscientific, brain-based analysis of biochemical causation. Schizophrenic pathology might make greater sense if we see it as a response to a personal type of suffering that is mediated by the network of interpersonal relations with which the schizophrenic must cope.

Many philosophers attempt utilize these traditions as frameworks for collaboration by which the split between humanistic and biological models of psychiatry might be overcome. The established biological model of psychiatry is premised on the viewpoint that “mental disorders” have a causal basis in specific biochemical and physico-functional irregularities of the brain. It minimizes the relevance of lived experience in favour of a detached, often reductionist, third-person emphasis on biochemical etiology. The humanistic model of psychiatry aims to reclaim the lived experience of mental disorder as an explanandum in its own right. An emerging idea in the philosophy of psychiatry is that knowledge of neurobiological processes and a method of phenomenological description that stays close to the lived experience of mentally disordered persons might complement each other in research and treatment. Hence the growing interest in making connections between neuroscientific findings about the brain and phenomenological descriptions of experience that would integrate the biological as an aspect of a patient’s lived experience that “does not assume explanatory power for the totality of that patient’s life.”[2] This course will explore current work from both philosophical traditions in an attempt to better understand four areas of interest: 1) the role of moral values in psychiatric diagnosis and treatment; 2) the limits of our ability to understand the meaning of a mentally disordered person’s experiences, beliefs and utterances; 3) the conceptual, normative and scientific foundations of psychiatry and 4) ethical and epistemological issues pertaining to psychiatric research and pharmaceutical and psychotherapeutic treatments.

[1] K.W.M. Fulford, Katherine J. Morris, John Z. Sadler, and Giovanni Stanghellini, “Past Improbable, Future Possible: The Renaissance in Philosophy and Psychiatry,” in Nature and Narrative: An Introduction to the New Philosophy of Psychiatry, eds. K.W.M. Fulford, Katherine J. Morris, John Z. Sadler, and Giovanni Stanghellini (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003), 10. See also Natalie Banner and Tim Thornton, “The New Philosophy of Psychiatry: Its Recent Past, Present and Future: A Review of the Oxford University Press Series International Perspectives in Philosophy and Psychiatry,” Philosophy, Ethics, and Humanities in Medicine 2 (2007): 1-14.

[2] Larry Davidson, “Developing an Empirical Phenomenological Approach to Schizophrenia Research.”

Journal of Phenomenological Psychology 23 (1992): 3–15.

Technical requirements for taking the course: This course will be conducted completely in person. Students will need to access the eClass website for course-related documents and messages.

Here are some useful links for student computing information, resources and help:

Student Guide to Moodle

Zoom@YorkU Best Practices 

Zoom@YorkU User Reference Guide

Computing for Students Website

Student Guide to eLearning at York University

To determine Internet connection and speed, there are online tests, such as Speedtest, that can be run.]

Times and locations: Mondays 11:30 – 2:30 BSB (Behavioural Sciences Building) 203

Office hours: Mondays 2:30 – 3:30. Otherwise by appointment.

All required readings are accessible via the internet and through the Yorku Libraries system. A complete syllabus will be provided before the first class.

Seminar Presentation: 15%. Presentation dates will be assigned by the second seminar.

Major Paper Outline with Bibliography (8-10 pages max, double-spaced, not including bibliography): 25%.

Major Paper (15-20 pages max, double-spaced, exclusive of bibliography): 60%.

TBA

* To understand how analytic and existential/phenomenological traditions in philosophy are applied to the analysis of basic psychiatric concepts as well as the problems of value, meaning and fact that this medical discipline presents.

* To understand competing models of psychiatry.

*To understand competing modes of psychiatric treatment

* To understand key conceptual and methodological issues in psychiatric research.

Course Policies:

Students are expected to attend classes regularly, to read the assigned materials beforehand and to participate actively in class discussions. Essay questions will be related directly to the materials discussed in class. I begin each class with a lecture during which I will raise questions for our discussions. We will be discussing some very contentious moral issues about which reasonable people disagree. Civility and intellectual respect for colleagues are virtues we will cultivate.

Late Penalties:
Written assignments must be submitted to me on time. Late submissions will be penalized 5% per day. I will not accept submissions via e-mail. Hard copies must be submitted to me in class or in my office. If submitted late, they must be dated and left in the drop box in the Philosophy Dept. on the 4^th floor of the South Ross Building. In exceptional cases (e.g., serious illness with proper and legible documentation from a physician), I may exercise discretion and waive the late penalty.

Academic Integrity:

I take academic integrity very seriously. I require that you be honest about submitting your own work and that you cite your sources with accuracy. I will not grade a paper unless I am satisfied that the academic honesty requirements have been met. I use Turnitin.com to verify this and will provide instructions for submission on the Moodle course website. I do not authorize the use of any AI technology to do your work for you.