CAN BEING TOLD YOU'RE ILL MAKE YOU ILL? A DISCUSSION OF PSYCHIATRY, RELIGION AND OUT OF THE ORDINARY EXPERIENCES. Issue 49 (23rd May 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Scrutton, Tasia Philippa
• Is Part Of: Think. Volume 17:Issue 49(2018)
• Page Start: 87
• Page End: 101
• Publication Date: 2018-05-23
• Subjects: Philosophy -- Periodicals; 105
• DOI: 10.1017/S1477175618000131
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1477-1756

Abstract

Abstract : What would you think if someone told you they heard voices when no one was there, or could sense the presence of the dead? In some historical periods and in some societies today these experiences are made sense of positively in religious or spiritual terms, but in modern western societies they tend to be regarded as symptomatic of mental illnesses such as schizophrenia. I argue that interpreting these experiences in terms of illness can negatively affect them, turning them into something pathological when they needn't necessarily be so. I also discuss wider issues regarding illness, medicine, authority, interpretation and meaning.