1 rich Libsyn https://www.libsyn.com 90 600 Welcome one and all to Professor Metal's Irate Debate and Calamitous Commentary with The Philosophical Chain Gang Today's episode is Madness and Philosophy: Foucault's Nightmare? Warning: We are discussing the concept of Mental Health in this episode, which we understand is a topic about which many people hold strong opinions. These are our own opinions and experiences, and should not be perceived as professional opinions or advice The Philosophers discuss what we mean when we talk about madness Sean explains Pathologies and what that term means The Philosophers talk about mental illness as something that negatively impacts your life Sean explains how this could be viewed through Value Theory Ryver and Sean clarify this point by discussing some of the push-back against these ideas of mental health Bruce talks about the ability the internet grants to form communities and allow people to come together over things that differ from the perceived societal norm Ryver and Sean explain the benefits of this in terms of things people cannot or do not feel comfortable talking about in their local community Sean discusses the evolution of the idea of community as a result of the expansion of the internet Bruce proposes that perhaps the medical model of mental health will need to change with the evolution of expanding cultures Sean counters that this may not be a problem with the medical model of mental illness as much as the public health model, that perhaps there needs to be an individual idea The Philosophers talk about the dangers of self-selected communities creating a form of intellectual homogeneity that reinforces behaviours that do not integrate with the society as a whole Sean clarifies that these same groups can provide the support people with a particular world-view need to better integrate into said society Ryver discusses some of the benefits of these groups from his own experiences Sean and Bruce go over the benefits of introspection and the tools Philosophy can give us to analyse our own world Ryver discusses the evolution of societal ideas of normalcy, including changes to the tool many use to diagnose mental illness: The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) Sean and Ryver talk about the history of treating mental illness Sean discusses the history of how people with what we now refer to as mental illness were treated, as well as what Foucault had to say about this history Ryver briefly talks about the history of asylums Bruce compares and contrasts the historical and modern problems with how mental illness is considered as a whole Sean discusses Foucault and the transitions of epochs of knowledge and how this impacts our ideas of illness in general and mental illness specifically Bruce proposes Aristotelian virtue ethics as a precursor to modern psychology Ryver posits that some of the behaviours we consider to be pathologies are actually useful character traits in certain professions and fields Sean expands on this point by discussing the importance of efficiency in our society The Philosophers discuss different ways this can apply to people with mental illness Sean and Ryver talk about how perception of these traits are tied quite closely to socio-economic status Ryver explains how this view seems to have evolved in the modern Zeitgeist Sean and Bruce raise questions about this view Ryver responds by clarifying the points he has raised The Philosophers discuss how the views on and the stigma towards mental illness disproportionately impact the poor Sean and Bruce flesh out this idea as it pertains to modern American culture The Philosophers talk about discussions on mental health and mental illness, and encourage you to have these discussions &amp;nbsp; And as always please give us your honest review on iTunes and Stitcher. It helps us make the show better with every one we get to read. Help keep the show going and the moon safe by supporting us on Patreon https://patreon.com/Philosophy Help keep us from disappearing by engaging us on the social media platform of your choice: http://www.philosophicalchaingang.com http://www.reddit.com/r/professormetal http://www.twitter.com/PChainGang https://www.facebook.com/PChainGang https://www.pinterest.com/PChainGang/ http://pchaingang.tumblr.com/ Professor Metal's Irate Debate and Calamitous Commentary http://www.PhilosophicalChainGang.com <iframe title="Libsyn Player" style="border: none" src="//html5-player.libsyn.com/embed/episode/id/4296597/height/90/theme/custom/thumbnail/yes/direction/forward/render-playlist/no/custom-color/88AA3C/" height="90" width="600" scrolling="no" allowfullscreen webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen oallowfullscreen msallowfullscreen></iframe> https://assets.libsyn.com/secure/content/11478233