82:4 October 1999
Cognitive Theories of Mental Illness 

Advisory Editor: Joelle Proust, Paris

Cognitive models of the mind are based on the assumption that a mind is an assemblage of different sorts of functions, including those of extracting information from the environment, representing this information in various formats, and storing and retrieving it according to current needs and purposes. One way of learning more about the mind is to study variations and impairments in mental functioning. Cognitive neuropsychology has developed successful methods for exploring phenomena such as blindsight and aphasia. Cognitive psychopathology is still in its infancy. Its goal is that of understanding the cognitive processes associated with phenomena such as autism, schizophrenia, melancholy and depression. A wealth of new models emerge, offering promising areas of investigation for philosophers. Issues relevant to philosophical inquiry include the relations between perception, hallucination and judgment, agency and the self, consciousness, rationality and belief dynamics in the deluded, the understanding of other minds, and the control of action. Papers are invited on any of these and related topics. They should reflect current developments, but in such a way as to be intelligible to the general philosophical reader.

Table of Contents:

Brendan A. Maher 

Anomalous experience in everyday life: Its significance for psychopathology

Andy W. Young 

Delusions

Philip Gerrans 

Delusional  Misidentification as Subpersonal Disintegration

John Campbell 

Schizophrenia, the space of reasons, and thinking as a motor process

Kai Vogeley 

Hallucinations emerge from an imbalance of self monitoring and reality modelling

Valerie Gray Hardcastle and Owen Flanagan 

Multiplex vs. Multiple Selves:  Distinguishing Dissociative Disorders

Robert L. Woolfolk 

Malfunction and Mental Illness