Peter Zachar – författare

Many of the current debates about validity in psychiatry and psychology are predicated on the unexpected failure to validate commonly used diagnostic categories. The recognition of this failure has resulted in, what Thomas Kuhn calls, a period of extraordinary science in which validation problems are given increased weight, alternatives are proposed, methodologies are debated, and philosophical and historical analyses are seen as more relevant than usual. In this important new book in the IPPP series, a group of leading thinkers in psychiatry, psychology, and philosophy offer alternative perspectives that address both the scientific and clinical aspects of psychiatric validation, emphasizing throughout their philosophical and historical considerations. This is a book that all psychiatrists, as well as philosophers with an interest in psychiatry, will find thought provoking and valuable.

Causality extends across many areas of psychiatry, from the purely conceptual and philosophical to the interpretation of genetic, epidemiological, and neurobiological work. This book offers new, interdisciplinary perspectives on causation in psychopathology, exploring it in relation to the latest scientific and philosophical advances, as well as through psychiatric research and practice. It features contributions from many internationally known psychologists, clinical researchers, and philosophers of science actively studying the phenomenology of mental illness. The chapters are organized into four sections: The Causes Themselves; Causes, Genes, and Neuroscience; Causality and Nosology; and Causality and Phenomenology. Each main chapter is preceded by a brief introduction written by the editors and a commentary by another author in this volume. By taking a multidisciplinary approach spanning psychiatry, philosophy, and psychology, the book is written to be accessible for members of all three disciplines.

This book offers an interdisciplinary perspective on personality disorder with chapters by philosophers, psychiatrists, and psychological scientists. Written to be accessible to all three disciplines, it updates traditional conceptualizations and offers new and novel perspectives on personality disorder, with a special emphasis on borderline and narcissistic personalities. Featuring contributions from established senior researchers as well as early career scholars from across four continents, it offers surveys of contemporary research and clinical expertise that together plumb the foundational understandings of personality disorder.

Levels of Analysis in Psychopathology draws research from psychiatry, philosophy, and psychology to explore the variety of explanatory approaches for understanding the nature of psychiatric disorders both in practice and research. The fields of psychiatry and clinical psychology incorporates many useful explanatory approaches and this book integrates this range of perspectives and makes suggestions about how to advance etiologic theories, classification, and treatment. The editors have brought together leading thinkers who have been widely published and are well-respected in their area of expertise, including several developers of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders and authors of the US National Institute of Mental Health's Research Domain Criteria Project (RDoC). Each main chapter has a commentary provided by one of the other authors and an introduction written by one of the editors to create an accessible, interdisciplinary dialog.