The Fragmented Mind

The thesis of mental fragmentation has recently attracted increased attention as a way of explaining facts about mind and language. This volume provides an accessible introduction and essays on foundations and applications of fragmentation.

The thesis of mental fragmentation has recently attracted increased attention as a way of explaining facts about mind and language. This volume provides an accessible introduction and essays on foundations and applications of fragmentation.

Mental fragmentation is the thesis that the mind is fragmented, or compartmentalized. Roughly, this means that an agent's overall belief state is divided into several sub-states-fragments. These fragments need not make for a consistent and deductively closed belief system. The thesis of mental fragmentation became popular through the work of philosophers like Christopher Cherniak, David Lewis, and Robert Stalnaker in the 1980s, and has recently attracted increased attention. This volume is the first collection of essays devoted to the topic of mental fragmentation. It features important new contributions by leading experts in the philosophy of mind, epistemology, and philosophy of language. Opening with an accessible introduction providing a systematic overview of the current debate, the fourteen essays cover a wide range of issues: foundational issues and motivations for fragmentation, the rationality or irrationality of fragmentation, fragmentation's role in language, the relationship between fragmentation and mental files, and the implications of fragmentation for the analysis of implicit attitudes.

Mental fragmentation is the thesis that the mind is fragmented, or compartmentalized. Roughly, this means that an agent's overall belief state is divided into several sub-states-fragments. These fragments need not make for a consistent and deductively closed belief system. The thesis of mental fragmentation became popular through the work of philosophers like Christopher Cherniak, David Lewis, and Robert Stalnaker in the 1980s, and has recently attracted increased attention. This volume is the first collection of essays devoted to the topic of mental fragmentation. It features important new contributions by leading experts in the philosophy of mind, epistemology, and philosophy of language. Opening with an accessible introduction providing a systematic overview of the current debate, the fourteen essays cover a wide range of issues: foundational issues and motivations for fragmentation, the rationality or irrationality of fragmentation, fragmentation's role in language, the relationship between fragmentation and mental files, and the implications of fragmentation for the analysis of implicit attitudes.

A philosophy book on various subjects. Includes subject such as: God, morality, politics, spirituality, evolution...

The Fragmented Personality introduces a new model for diagnosing and caring for patients with personality disorder. This book reviews in detail the neuroscience of brain and mind development, including the neuroscience of psychoanalytic concepts, both for normal and disordered personalities. In contrast to the current static classifications of personality pathology, the authors' approach yields a dynamic and personalized diagnosis within a 3D diagnostic space in which each individual is uniquely positioned. In this model, two intersecting dimensions, one vertical, representing the person's qualitative level of mental functioning (the "how" of personality), and the other horizontal, representing his or her adaptive style (the "what" of personality) are cross matched in the unit of time. Such dynamic nosology is inherently sensitive to fluctuations in mental functioning over time and context, and gives the clinician precise milestones for monitoring progress in therapy. In this book, the authors analyze the impact of social transitions on adaptive tasks, personality and psychopathology. They argue that the conservative society, with strict socio-religious norms, favored the psychopathology of neuroses centered around guilt, including guilt for not fitting the preapproved norms. With the postmodern liberalization of normative pressures, the adaptive task has changed from "how to fit" into "what to choose" among many accepted alternatives, creating uncertainty of identity. This uncertainty, together with the non-directive society, favors the psychopathology of personality disorder, and indeed, the prevalence of personality disorder has increased in the postmodern period. Drs. Svrakic and Divac-Jovanovic argue that fragmented personality, a deep and early fragmentation of the mind at its nonconscious core of internalized object relations, represents a common denominator shared by all clinical variants of personality disorder. They conceptualize personality disorder as a homeostatic attempt by the fragmented early mind to heal itself by self-organizing into an unrealistic and fantasized but a more stable self-image, figuratively a "better any than no organization" strategy. In this invaluable text, the authors provide detailed practical guidelines for the diagnosis, differential diagnosis, and treatment of individuals with personality disorder and answer practical questions that clinicians frequently ask about etiology, psychotherapy and pharmacotherapy of the syndrome.

Healing the Fragmented Selves of Trauma Survivors integrates a neurobiologically informed understanding of trauma, dissociation, and attachment with a practical approach to treatment, all communicated in straightforward language accessible to both client and therapist. Readers will be exposed to a model that emphasizes "resolution"—a transformation in the relationship to one’s self, replacing shame, self-loathing, and assumptions of guilt with compassionate acceptance. Its unique interventions have been adapted from a number of cutting-edge therapeutic approaches, including Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, Internal Family Systems, mindfulness-based therapies, and clinical hypnosis. Readers will close the pages of Healing the Fragmented Selves of Trauma Survivors with a solid grasp of therapeutic approaches to traumatic attachment, working with undiagnosed dissociative symptoms and disorders, integrating "right brain-to-right brain" treatment methods, and much more. Most of all, they will come away with tools for helping clients create an internal sense of safety and compassionate connection to even their most dis-owned selves.

The Fragmented Personality presents new model for caring for patients with personality disorder in post-modern society. In contrast to the static classifications of personality pathology, the authors' approach yields a personalized diagnosis that is contextual, dimensional, and time-specific and at the same time provides information about the current position of the individual in relation to the important components of personality functioning. In this model of dimensional diagnostics, two intersecting coordinates, one representing the person's level of functioning (the "what" of the diagnosis) and the other his/her adaptive style (the "how" of the diagnosis) are cross matched in the unit of time. This gives the psychiatrist precise milestones for monitoring progress in therapy. Why does this matter for psychiatry in post-modern society? Drs. Svrakic and Jovanovic argue that the ideals of mental health traditionally have been stability and integrity. In the context of the postmodern world, these ideals may sound outdated, possibly even implying inflexibility or narrow mindedness. The postmodern "fragmented self" is a natural, adaptive answer to the changing existential milieu of humans. This fragmented, decentered self consists of incoherent and abstract images, not derived solely from traditional social interactions, but created by the postmodern culture. Borderline personality is fragmented at its unconscious core of internalized object relations, resulting in specific borderline psychopathologies or a "fragmented personality." Drs. Svrakic and Jovanovic analyze the impact of recent dramatic social transitions on adaptive tasks, personality and psychopathology. They introduce the concepts of monothematic self of the conservative era and the multi-thematic self of the postmodern era and discuss their relevance to the changing concepts of psychopathology. The authors argue that the conservative society, with strong nuclear family and strict ethical and religious norms, favored the psychopathology of neuroses centered around guilt, including guilt for not fitting the preapproved social norms. With the liberalization of normative pressures in the postmodern period, the adaptive task has changed into "what to choose" among many accepted alternatives, creating uncertainty of choice. This uncertainty, together with the non-directive society, favors the psychopathology of personality disorder, and indeed, the prevalence of personality disorder has increased in the postmodern period. In addition to discussing their conceptual model, the authors provide detailed practical guidelines for the diagnosis, differential diagnosis, and treatment when using their model in the management of personality disorder. They answer practical questions that clinicians frequently ask about etiology, psychotherapy and pharmacotherapy of personality disorder. The authors also detail Reconstructive Interpersonal Therapy (RIT), their variant of interpersonal psychotherapy which integrates humanistic and psychoanalytical paradigms in the treatment of personality disorder.