Translation in Context
This subproject focuses on translation in the practice of psychiatrists. Psychiatric syndromes are not merely sets of symptoms; there are important self-relational, contextual and narrative dimensions in psychiatric illness. How a particular symptom evolves depends on coping abilities, early socialization, social resources, medical attention, and interpretation by the patient, relatives and friends. This personal, socio-cultural and normative context is not only fundamental for psychiatry as a clinical practice; it also shapes its language.
The subproject will analyze the context-sensitivity of the process of translation: proper translation requires sensitivity to the psychological, socio-cultural and normative dimensions of the target domain. This also requires awareness of the conceptual and normative horizon of the source domain. Key issues that will be addressed are:
– what does it mean to say, as a clinician, “You are suffering from (psychiatric) disorder X”, if X refers to a scientific concept of that particular disorder?
– how does the clinician ‘translate’ this scientific concept (and its related explanatory assumptions) into clinically relevant and ecologically valid terms?
– which conceptual, contextual, normative considerations does the clinician need to have in mind when performing these translations?
– which role do metaphors play in this translation?
– what conceptual framework do we need to identify the relevant contextual components and dimensions, both in the source and the target domain?
Selected Publications
1. Person, personality, self, and identity. The Journal of Personality Disorders, 20 (2006), 126-138.
2. Dimensions of the self in emotion and psychopathology. Philosophy, Psychiatry, Psychology, Vol. 24(2) (2017), 143-155.
3. Anxiety and phobias: Phenomenologies, concepts, explanations. In: K.W.M. Fulford, M. Davies, R. Gipps, G. Graham, J. Sadler, G. Stanghellini &T. Thornton (Eds). Oxford Handbook of Philosophy and Psychiatry. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013, pp. 551-573.