Psychiatry in the labyrinth: Deconstructing deviancy

Abstract

Deviancy is a key concept in psychiatry and other therapeutic disciplines, because it dramatizes the way in which they depend on the establishment of norms, in order to justify their theory and practice. The writings of Derrida as well as Goethe provide a different view: that “deviation” from a “norm” can be fundamentally important to the well‐being of the norm. Thus deviancy can be viewed not as something to be “corrected” but rather as a creative possibility to be encouraged and shaped in productive ways. As a case of “deviancy” we have selected the writings of John Perceval, whose Narrative provides a critique of the mental‐health establishment of his day, particularly the asylum, and offers an alternative to 19th‐century views of “lunacy.” We see his “schizophrenic” commentary on his “psychosis” and its treatment as analogous to the deconstructive, “schizophrenic” discourse of postmodernity which is similarly critical of the reigning, modernist psychiatric order.     

Psychiatry in Japan--a synoptic presentation

After presenting an appropriate historical outline, the author describes the current position of psychiatry in Japanese medicine. Particular attention is paid to transcultural aspects.     

Phenomenology in Psychiatry and Psychoanalysis

The American Journal of Psychoanalysis -     

Psychiatry and transcendence

In the relationship which over the years has developed between psychiatry and religion, a common philosophical view of the human person has not always been in evidence. From a Catholic perspective this paper proposes a view which underscores the attribute oftranscendence in the person and accounts for that reality too often shunned by psychiatry, namely, a person'sspiritual life.