Macalester Moodle

What is “madness”? Can the concept of mental illness be a valid one? What assumptions underlie attempts to classify mental disorders? And can we be justified in compelling people to submit to psychiatric treatment?

In this course we will examine these and other questions raised by mental disorder and our attempts to understand and treat it. We will also address ethical issues like the social implications of clinical categories, the proper aims of clinical discourse and practice, and the prospects of alternative models (besides the medical model) for conceptualizing mental “dysfunctions.”