Imperfect Cognitions

Todays post is by Manuel Almagro (University of Valencia) and Carme Isern-Mas (University of the Balearic Islands), presenting their recent paper ' Blunting concepts: The double-edged effect of popularizing psychotherapy language ' (Philosophical Psychology). Manuel Almagro In the last week, a friend might have described a harmful and impactful past experience as “traumatic”, talked about their “OCD” after arranging their bookshelf by color, or called a weekend of binge-watching shows and ignoring work emails “self-care”. A colleague might have tried to justify their demand that their partner not hang out with friends under the pretext that these were their “boundaries”. A relative might have explained their feelings of exhaustion and detachment as symptoms of “burn-out”, or mentioned that their boss has recommended “mindfulness” to an overwhelmed worker so that they can better cope with time pressure atwork. Psychotherapy language is more and more present in our everyday talk....

This post is by Richard Hassall. Richard Hassall Diagnosis, as the identification of the disease afflicting the patient, is a central element in modern medicine. However, a diagnosis is more than just a statement defining a disease and aiming to guide treatment. It can also have other important social and other consequences for its recipient, beyond acting as a hypothesis for the purpose of treatment. Thus, sociologists of medicine have observed that diagnoses can function to define the sick role in social contexts and authorise medical social control in various ways (e.g. Jutel, 2017 ; McGann, 2011 ). In a paper forthcoming in Journal of Medicine and Philosophy , I argue that the act of delivering a medical diagnosis creates an institutional fact. I make use of Austin's (1962) speech act theory to argue that the statement of a diagnosis is both an illocutionary and a perlocutionary speech act. The announcement by the physician of a diagnosis is not simply a factual statement abou...