“I do not use 'brilliant' often, but no better word comes to mind for Garson’s intriguing perspective-shifting exegetical journey through the highways and byways of historical writing about mental disorder. It has often been recognized that madness offered compensations, some of them cathartic, consoling, even healing. Now, suddenly, we find ourselves seeing those compensations not as haphazard if lucky side-effects, but as part of the order of things. And through this remarkable sleight of hand, Garson offers us what has long been sought by philosophers of psychiatry: a plausible place for disorder within our era’s neo-Darwinism.”

Jennifer Radden
Professor Emerita, University of Massachusetts Boston

“In this accessible and interesting book, Justin Garson shows why philosophy matters to understanding the biology of the mind. Scientists have made great progress on questions about altruism, free will, consciousness, and the impact of genes on mental activity, but it takes a philosopher to provide the needed clarification, connection, and caution. Garson is that philosopher.”

Elliott Sober
University of Wisconsin

“I cannot remember the last time I read a book of philosophy that taught me something new and also took me on such a journey of images and sounds—a powerful reminder that, yes, rigorous philosphical ideas can be expressed in many forms, including excellent prose. Justin Garson’s Madness reads like a novel but instructs like an encyclopaedia. This was a journey of self-transformation and, as such, it was an often uncomfortable read: I have always thought of myself as someone who accepts a largely medicalized view of madness but is vocal about madness having meaning and purpose. While reading the book and for a long time afterwards, however, I became seriously concerned that I could not be both.”

Lisa Bortolotti
University of Birmingham

“In this introductory volume, Garson offers a concise summary of several debates surrounding the interface between philosophy of biology and philosophy of mind. ... Written with admirable clarity and wit, this book would make a great secondary text in an upper-level philosophy of biology or philosophy of mind course. Summing Up: Recommended.”

Philip Jenkins
CHOICE

“A wonderful, clear, lively, informative, and extremely accessible book. It is a terrific introduction to the philosophy of mind for those who want to explore the relation between our biological and psychological natures.”

Karen Neander
Duke University

“The fundamental, yet original, insight of this book is that theories about mental illness are always, in one sense or another, theories about design; and that surveying the different stances on design developed through psychiatry’s history can provide as fruitful a taxonomy for understanding the field as more traditional conceptual schemas, like ‘mind’ and ‘body’ or ‘biological’ and ‘constructed’. Garson builds upon his impressive work in philosophy of biology to make a contribution that will make a big splash among philosophers of psychiatry, and among those working in the life sciences more broadly”

Kathryn Tabb
Bard College

“A wide-ranging, well-informed, and highly readable introduction to current debates in the philosophy of mind and psychology, presented through the lens of philosophy of biology and general philosophy of science. Garson's biologically oriented approach to the issues makes so much sense, one can't help but wonder why it's not more standard in the literature; by rights, it should be.”

Philip Robbins
University of Missouri

“Garson's new book is a much-needed presentation of an alternative tradition in psychiatry ― a tradition that is invisible or marginalized in the history of psychiatry, that is, the tradition of considering mental disorders as functional. While most people in the field maintain that mental illness has always been conceptualized as some kind of dysfunction, Garson argues eloquently that this is a mischaracterization. By looking attentively at well-known (and sometimes, forgotten) theoreticians of madness as well as contemporary research programs, Garson offers a counter-narrative that will challenge prevalent views and will open theoretical possibilities”

Luc Faucher
Université du Québec, Montréal

“Is someone whose thoughts and feelings take a strange turn deranged and disordered? Or are they instituting some tactic, some way forward, on their quest to make do and find meaning? Is there a reason behind their madness? Is there perhaps some innate design? These are, quite literally, questions for the ages, and Garson tackles them all—and more—with a thoroughness, a calm and inclusive meticulousness, that impresses while it persuades.”

Amy Biancolli
MadInAmerica.com