ABSTRACT
In the dozen or so years since Anthony Quinton wrote these words the authors have seen an unprecedented explosion of cross-disciplinary work between philosophy and psychiatry. In this chapter, the author wants to consider some of the issues raised by cross-disciplinary work between philosophy and psychiatry on responsibility. The author starts with a note on the methodology of cross-disciplinary work between philosophy and psychiatry. The dangers of the false separation of mind and brain in biological psychiatry are well illustrated by the history of psychosomatic concepts in medicine. Descartes’ identification of the pineal gland as what the people might now call a mind-body transceiver is often treated as something of a philosophical joke. In this chapter the author have explored some of the issues about responsibility, itself an aspect of the mind-body problem, as raised by the story of a real person, Mrs Lazy, reported in The Times newspaper.
