ABSTRACT
This chapter offers a critical examination of the separate concepts of illness and mind. People tend to be uncertain about the causes of mental illness, unable to decide whether it is due to brain problems, psychological problems, weak wills, or fate. While Hippocrates was mostly concerned with physical disorders, he also considered cases characterized as mental illnesses. If the meaning of illness is mildly contentious, the meaning of mind is beset with unmatched controversy; it is one of the most perplexing problems in philosophy. In the intervening period, when physical evidence was lacking, an alternative version of the medical model for mental disturbances emerged, one which emphasizes the psychological dimension more than the physical dimension. The philosophy of dualism allows the possibility that the illness is in the mind, and a literal, grammatical reading of the term mental illness sustains this point of view.
