Epistemic Justice in Mental Healthcare: Recognising Agency and Promoting Virtues Across the Life Span

This open access book explores epistemic justice in mental healthcare, bringing together perspectives from psychologists, psychiatrists, philosophers, activists, and lived experience researchers. Through eight chapters, authors identify threats to the agency of people who hear voices, experience depression, have psychotic symptoms, live with dementia, are diagnosed with personality disorders, and face serious mental health issues while receiving palliative care. Considering the power asymmetries in clinical interactions, where patients are vulnerable and healthcare professionals are uniquely placed to offer support, this book reaffirms the importance of recognizing patients as agents and collaborators. Topics covered include trust in the therapeutic relationship, dignity at the end of life, the social dimension of health, stigma in an acute ward, the harm caused by biases and stereotypes, the role of clinical communication, and the promise of digital health. Students, academic researchers, practitioners, as well as mental health charities will benefit from this timely collection.

Lisa Bortolotti is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Birmingham, UK, affiliated with both the Philosophy Department and the Institute of Mental Health. She is a philosopher of the cognitive sciences with special interests in agency and mental health. She is the Editor-in-Chief of the journal Philosophical Psychology (Taylor and Francis), and the author of Delusions and Other Irrational Beliefs (OUP 2009), The Epistemic Innocence of Irrational Beliefs (OUP 2020), and Why Delusions Matter (Bloomsbury 2023). With Palgrave she published Delusions in Context (2018), an edited collection on delusions with contributions by clinicians, lived experience researchers, psychologists, and philosophers, also available Open Access.