KESNER, Ladislav. Mental Ill-Health and the Epidemiology of Representations. Frontiers in Psychiatry. Lausanne: Frontiers Media SA, 2018, 9, 2018, 9:298, p. 1-6. Available from: https://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2018.00289.
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Basic information
Original name Mental Ill-Health and the Epidemiology of Representations.
Name in Czech Duševní nezdraví a epidemiologie reprezentací
Name (in English) Mental Ill-Health and the Epidemiology of Representations.
Authors KESNER, Ladislav.
Edition Frontiers in Psychiatry, Lausanne, Frontiers Media SA, 2018.
Other information
Type of outcome Article in a journal
Confidentiality degree is not subject to a state or trade secret
WWW URL
Organization unit Faculty of Arts
Doi http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2018.00289
UT WoS 000439124400001
Keywords (in Czech) duševní nezdraví epidemiologie reprezentace
Keywords in English mental ill-health epidemiology representations
Tags International impact, Reviewed
Changed by Changed by: prof. PhDr. Ladislav Kesner, Ph.D., učo 82366. Changed: 31/1/2019 15:02.
Abstract
One of major challenges facing contemporary psychiatry is the insufficient grasp of relationship between individual and collective mental pathologies. A long tradition of diagnosing "mental illness" of society-exemplified by Erich Fromm-stands apart from approach of contemporary social psychiatry and is not perceived as relevant for psychiatric discourse. In this Perspective article, I argue that it is possible to uphold the idea of a supra-individual dimension to mental health, while avoiding the obvious pitfalls involved in categorical diagnosing of society as suffering from mental illness. I argue for an extended notion of public mental ill-health, which goes beyond the quantitative understanding of mental health as an aggregate of individual diseased minds captured in statistics, and which can be conceived as a dynamic, emergent property resulting from interactions of individual brains/minds in social space. Such a notion, in turn, presents a challenge of how to account for the interfacing between individual minds/brains and the collective mental phenomena. A suitable theoretical framework is provided by the notion of epidemiology of representations, originally formulated by cognitive anthropologist Dan Sperber. Within this framework, it is possible to highlight the role of public (material) representations in inter-individual transfer of mental representations and mental states. It is a suitable conceptual platform to explain how the troubling experiences with causal or mediating role on mental health, to a significant degree arise through a person's direct interaction with material representations and participation in collective mental states, again generated by material representations.
Abstract (in Czech)
Článek prezentuje model duševního (ne)zdraví jako důsledek tzv. epidemiologie reprezentací.
Abstract (in English)
One of major challenges facing contemporary psychiatry is the insufficient grasp of relationship between individual and collective mental pathologies. A long tradition of diagnosing "mental illness" of society-exemplified by Erich Fromm-stands apart from approach of contemporary social psychiatry and is not perceived as relevant for psychiatric discourse. In this Perspective article, I argue that it is possible to uphold the idea of a supra-individual dimension to mental health, while avoiding the obvious pitfalls involved in categorical diagnosing of society as suffering from mental illness. I argue for an extended notion of public mental ill-health, which goes beyond the quantitative understanding of mental health as an aggregate of individual diseased minds captured in statistics, and which can be conceived as a dynamic, emergent property resulting from interactions of individual brains/minds in social space. Such a notion, in turn, presents a challenge of how to account for the interfacing between individual minds/brains and the collective mental phenomena. A suitable theoretical framework is provided by the notion of epidemiology of representations, originally formulated by cognitive anthropologist Dan Sperber. Within this framework, it is possible to highlight the role of public (material) representations in inter-individual transfer of mental representations and mental states. It is a suitable conceptual platform to explain how the troubling experiences with causal or mediating role on mental health, to a significant degree arise through a person's direct interaction with material representations and participation in collective mental states, again generated by material representations.
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