WINNER OF THE BMA YOUNG AUTHORS' AWARD. This book proposes to open up the debate on mental disorders, to get people interested and talking, and to get them thinking. For example, what is schizophrenia? Why is it so common? Why does it affect human beings and not animals? What might this tell us about our mind and body, language and creativity, music and religion? What are the boundaries between mental disorder and 'normality'? Is there a relationship between mental disorder and genius? These are some of the difficult but important questions that this book confronts, with the overarching aim of exploring what mental disorders can teach us about human nature and the human condition.
The Meaning of Madness
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A riveting read for anyone looking for a window into the world of mental disorder... --Professor Robert Howard, Dean, The Royal College of Psychiatrists
Most books on mental disorder are either polemical or over-technical. This remarkable book by contrast provides a highly readable and at the same time authoritative account that by combining literary and scientific sources shows the deep connections between 'madness' and some of our most important attributes as human beings. --Professor Bill Fulford, University of Oxford
Burton somehow avoids oversimplification. This is all the more remarkable, since his scope is fairly all-embracing, switching smoothly from side-effects of lithium to the nature of existential anxiety, to the quest for meaning in life... His writing is frequently almost poetic, yet he is capable of being crisply definitive... Ultimately this is a work of contradictions, an undemanding read that could challenge your view of the world. --Medical Journalists' Association
Most books on mental disorder are either polemical or over-technical. This remarkable book by contrast provides a highly readable and at the same time authoritative account that by combining literary and scientific sources shows the deep connections between 'madness' and some of our most important attributes as human beings. --Professor Bill Fulford, University of Oxford
Burton somehow avoids oversimplification. This is all the more remarkable, since his scope is fairly all-embracing, switching smoothly from side-effects of lithium to the nature of existential anxiety, to the quest for meaning in life... His writing is frequently almost poetic, yet he is capable of being crisply definitive... Ultimately this is a work of contradictions, an undemanding read that could challenge your view of the world. --Medical Journalists' Association
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About 'The Meaning of Madness',
By medstu99 (Nottingham, UK) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Meaning of Madness (Paperback)
This book proposes to open up the debate on mental disorders, to get people interested and talking, and to get them thinking. For example, what is schizophrenia? Why is it so common? Why does it affect human beings and not animals? What might this tell us about our mind and body, language and creativity, music and religion? What are the boundaries between mental disorder and 'normality'? Is there a relationship between mental disorder and genius? These are some of the difficult but important questions that this book confronts, with the overarching aim of exploring what mental disorders can teach us about human nature and the human condition. Contents: 1. Personality, identity, and agency; 2. Schizophrenia, the price for being human; 3. Depression, the curse of the strong; 4. Manic depressive psychosis, that fine madness; 5. Anxiety, freedom, and death; 6. Suicide
"Most books on mental disorder are either polemical or over-technical. This remarkable book by contrast provides a highly readable and at the same time authoritative account that by combining literary, philosophical and scientific sources, shows the deep connections between 'madness' and some of our most important attributes as human beings." --Professor Bill Fulford, Fellow of St Cross College, University of Oxford "A riveting read for anyone looking for a window into the world of mental disorder. Through his exploration of the philosophical and artistic context of mental health and disorder, Burton challenges the reader with his view that madness is no more than an expression of the mountain peaks and ocean depths of human nature." --Prof. Robert Howard, Dean, The Royal College of Psychiatrists
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