Language and Schizophrenia Perspectives from Psychology and Philosophy

Schizophrenia is one of the most enigmatic mental disorders, and language is one of its most essential and distinctive traits. Language and Schizophrenia provides a complete overview of schizophrenic language, utilising both psychological and philosophical perspectives to explore the unique way language impacts on this mental disorder.

Language and Schizophrenia investigates specific features of schizophrenic language using cognitive psychology alongside the opposing field of phenomenological psychiatry, concluding that neither of these approaches fully succeeds in explaining the linguistic features unique to Schizophrenia. Cardella?s innovative approach of combining psychological perspectives with philosophy offers a direct alternative to traditional cognitive perspectives, emphasising the fundamental role that language plays in the disorder.

This book provides a thorough analysis of the deep link between language and schizophrenia and will be of great value to researchers and postgraduates studying schizophrenia, phenomenology, neuropsychology and philosophy of language.

Introduction; 1. The Enigma of Schizophrenia 2. Language in Schizophrenia 3. Schizophrenic Language: The Cognitive Perspective 4. Schizophrenic Language: The Philosophical Perspective 5. An Alternative View: Schizophrenia as a disease of Language

Valentina Cardella is Associate Professor of Philosophy of Language at the University of Messina, Italy