Madness Explained: Psychosis and Human Nature

TL;DR: The origins of the authors' misunderstandings about madness, the solution of the riddle of psychiatric classification from the cradle to the clinic, and some implications of post-Kraepelinian psychopathology.

Abstract: The origins of our misunderstandings about madness: Emil Kraepelin's big idea - the origins of modern psychiatric theory after Kraepelin - how the standard approach to psychiatric classification evolved the great classification crisis - how it was discovered that the standard system was scientifically meaningless fool's gold - why psychiatric diagnoses do not work the boundaries of madness - why there is no boundary between sanity and madness them and us - modern psychiatry as a cultural system. A better picture of the soul: the significance of biology - psychosis, the brain and the concept of "disease" mental life and human nature - madness and the social brain madness and emotions - human emotions and the negative symptoms of psychosis. Some madnesses explained: depression and the pathology of self - core psychological processes that are important in severe mental illness a colourful malady - the psychology of mania abnormal attitudes - the psychology of delusional beliefs on the paranoid world view - towards a unified theory of depression, mania and paranoia the illusion of reality - the psychology of hallucinations the language of madness - the communication difficulties of psychotic patients. Causes and their effects: things are much more complex than they seem - the instability of psychosis, and the solution of the riddle of psychiatric classification from the cradle to the clinic psychosis considered from a developmental perspective the trails of life - how life experiences shape madness madness and society - some implications of post-Kraepelinian psychopathology.