Psychosis and Intelligibility

Abstract

This paper has been peer-reviewed but does not include the final publisher proof-corrections or journal pagination.

Epistemic injustice: The silenced voices

“…More damaging is when individuals with psychosis are perpetually dismissed as irrational and nonsensical. Jeppsson (2021) states that when encountering people with serious mental illness, it is easy to slip into an assumption that one will fail to understand them. Even deeper and more damaging is an erroneous assumption that there is nothing there to understand.…”

A Wide-Enough Range of ‘Test Environments’ for Psychiatric Disabilities

“…Since I was a child, I have experienced myself as sliding back and forth between normal reality and a terrifying demon world. I have written about these problems elsewhere (Jeppsson, 2021(Jeppsson, , 2022b(Jeppsson, , 2022c(Jeppsson, , 2022d, and won't go into much detail here; suffice to say that I have spent so much time in a state of absolute terror. Therefore, I used to think that the social model wasn't really applicable to my own case.…”

Exemption, Self-Exemption, and Compassionate Self-Excuse

“…I have already touched upon this injustice in the previous subsection: madpeople, both in psychiatric care and personal relationships, are subjected to one form of epistemic injustice, testimonial injustice, when what they say is perceived as "illness noises" and the content of what they say is ignored (Arpaly 2005;Jeppsson 2021). Furthermore, the academic debate dominated by sane scholars who discuss how "we" should relate to and treat madpeople is hermeneutically unjust (Leblanc and Kinsella 2016).…”

“…However, Strawson and many later philosophers frequently make blanket statements: people with mental disorders must be regarded objectively and lack moral responsibility. Furthermore, I have written at length elsewhere of how important it is to try to understand and empathize with people even when they are psychotic (Jeppsson 2021).…”

“…al 2016:Jones et Shatell 2016;Jeppsson 2021), even though psychiatry at large has failed to catch up. If I tell my psychiatrist that I feel guilty, she likely replies that I have no reason to blame myself; as a matter of fact, she says, psychosis renders a person wholly out of control.…”