[Revised entry by Jennifer Radden and Jonathan Y. Tsou on September 4, 2024.
Changes to: Main text, Bibliography]
Mental disorder (earlier entitled “illness” or “disease”) is ascribed to deviations from normal thoughts, reasoning, feelings, attitudes, and actions that are considered socially or personally dysfunctional and apt for treatment. Schizophrenia, depression, and bipolar disorder are core examples. The concept of mental disorder plays a role in many domains, including medicine, social sciences such as psychology and anthropology, and the humanities, including literature and philosophy. Philosophical…

Read the full article which is published on Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (external link)