On the nature of psychiatric symptoms

What are hallucinations, depressive episodes, or panic attacks?We know what they are, of course - psychiatric symptoms. The problem is that we don’t know what they are - ontologically.Which is to say: are they the manifestations of a compromised neurobiological mechanism? Or perhaps phenomena carrying a meaning to be deciphered? Adaptive strategies, defense mechanisms?The ninth episode is a philosophical inquiry into the nature of psychiatric symptoms and the power of the conceptual lenses we wear to understand them.ReferencesEagle, M. N. (2011). From classical to contemporary psychoanalysis: A critique and integration. Routledge.Ritunnano, R., Humpston, C., & Broome, M. R. (2022). Finding order within the disorder: A case study exploring the meaningfulness of delusions. BJPsych Bulletin, 46(2), 109–115. https://doi.org/10.1192/bjb.2020.151Russell, J. (2024). How delusions can uncover sources of harm and pathology: The epistemic value of interoceptive & unconscious information. Philosophy and the Mind Sciences, 5. https://doi.org/10.33735/phimisci.2024.11490Every other Monday, at 12pm.Follow us on:Instagram: @mirror_podcast_This project exists in Italian as well: In Front of the Mirror - Il podcast in Italiano