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Full-Text Articles in Medicine and Health Sciences
Depression And Moral Health: A Response To The Commentary, Mike W. Martin
Depression And Moral Health: A Response To The Commentary, Mike W. Martin
Philosophy Faculty Articles and Research
S. Nassir Ghaemi tells us that whereas "neurologists are sometimes accused of admiring disease rather than treating it," psychiatrists seek to cure disease even when they do not understand it. At the same time, he notes that Freud had both theoretical and practical interests that occasionally point in different directions, and psychiatrists have learned that theoretical understanding of the sources of suffering does not always translate directly into useful clinical practice. For their part, philosophers are often criticized for indulging in armchair speculation that yields neither empirical understanding nor practical efficacy. Writing as a philosopher in "Depression: Illness, Insight, and …
Depression: Illness, Insight, And Identity, Mike W. Martin
Depression: Illness, Insight, And Identity, Mike W. Martin
Philosophy Faculty Articles and Research
Depression needs to be understood within interdisciplinary scientific, biopsychosocial, therapeutic frameworks, but it also has a moral dimension. The tendency to oppose moral and therapeutic perspectives, as well as to replace moral outlooks with mental-health outlooks, handicaps thinking about depression and many other topics. John Stuart Mill's midlife crisis illustrates how an experience of depression can be both a sickness and a source of moral insight. Furthermore, therapy has a moral dimension, and conversely a humane outlook is interwoven with health-oriented approaches and avoids excessive blaming and guilt. Complicating matters, depression sometimes undermines moral autonomy, and there is a continuum …