Profile

Tim Thornton

Professor of Philosophy and Mental Health

School of Health

Brook Building, BB239

+44 (0)1772 895405

TThornton1@uclan.ac.uk

Tim Thornton’s research concerns conceptual issues at the heart of mental health care. He has published on clinical judgement, idiographic and narrative understanding, the recovery model and understanding psychopathology. He is author of Essential Philosophy of Psychiatry (OUP 2007), John McDowell (Acumen 2004), Wittgenstein on Language and Thought (EUP 1998) and co-author of the Oxford Textbook of Philosophy and Psychiatry (OUP 2006). He helps run the teaching programme in philosophy and mental.

Tim Thornton is Professor of Philosophy and Mental Health and Director of Philosophy at the University of Central Lancashire.

As well as contemporary philosophy of thought and language, his research concerns conceptual issues at the heart of mental health care. He has written research papers on clinical judgement, idiographic and narrative understanding, the interpretation of psychopathology and reductionism and social constructionism in psychiatry.

He is author of Essential Philosophy of Psychiatry (OUP 2007), Wittgenstein on Language and Thought (EUP 1998), John McDowell (Acumen 2004) and co-author of the Oxford Textbook of Philosophy and Psychiatry (OUP 2006).

He established the Philosophy and Mental Health distance learning teaching programme.

Qualification

PhD, MPhil, MA (Cantab)

Membership of professional or learned bodies

Member British Philosophical Association
Member Society for Applied Philosophy

Research

Drawing on research in the philosophy of thought, mind and metaphysics, Tim Thornton's  work mainly concerns the philosophy of psychiatry and abnormal psychology; understanding and judgement; clinical judgement and its relation to EBM; and narrative and idiographic forms understanding.
 
RESEARCH GRANTS
(2007) ‘Exploring the epistemological puzzle of phantom limb’ AHRC (speculative research) £37,000

Publications

Books

(2007) Essential Philosophy of Psychiatry Oxford: Oxford University Press
(2006) co-authored with Fulford, K.W.M and Graham, G. The Oxford Textbook of Philosophy and Psychiatry Oxford: Oxford University Press
(2004) John McDowell Chesham: Acumen.
(1998) Wittgenstein on Language and Thought Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press

Book under contract

Thornton, T and Gascoigne, N Tacit Knowledge Chesham: Acumen

Manuscripts under review

‘Delusional atmosphere, the everyday uncanny and the limits of secondary sense’ for a special issue of Emotion Review
‘Why teach the philosophy of mental health?’ Journal of Mental Health Training Education and Practice

Manuscripts in preparation

‘Clinical judgement and tacit knowledge’ for Fulford, K.W.M et al (eds) Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Psychiatry
‘Naturalism and dysfunction’ for the Philosophie, Histoire et Sociologie de la Médecine Mentale (PHS2M) programme University of Paris Descartes
‘Non-rational understanding? Feelings and the Beltane Fire Festival’
‘Tacit and explict knowledge in endovascular techniques’ for Lanzer, P. (ed) Mastering Endovascular Techniques; Guide to Excellence 2nd edition
Ayob, G and Thornton, T. ‘New variations on the mind brain problem’ for Current Opinion in Psychiatry

Articles in refereed journals

(forthcoming) ‘Capacity, mental mechanisms and unwise decisions’ Philosophy Psychiatry and Psychology
(forthcoming) ‘Radical liberal values based practice’ Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice
(forthcoming March 2011) Schaffner, K. and Thornton, T. ‘Philosophy of science for psychiatry for the person’ Special issue: Conceptual Bases of Psychiatry for the Person, International Journal of Person Centered Medicine
(2010) ‘Clinical judgement, expertise and skilled coping’ Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice 16: 284-291
(2010) ‘Narrative rather than idiographic approaches as counterpart to the nomothetic approach to assessment’ Psychopathology 16: 284-291
(2010) ‘Psychiatric explanation and understanding’ European Journal of Analytic Philosophy 6: 95-111
(2010) Thornton, T. and Lucas, P. ‘On the very idea of a recovery model for mental health’ J Med Ethics 37: 24-8
(2010) Kelly, B.D., Bracken, P., Cavendish, H., Crumlish, N., MacSuibhne, S., Szasz, T. and Thornton, T. ‘The Myth of Mental Illness fifty years after publication: What does it mean today?’ Irish Journal of Psychological Medicine 27: 35-43
(2009) ‘Clinical judgement and individual patients: invited commentary on Downie and Macnaughton’ Advances in Psychiatric Treatment 15: 328–331
(2009) Thornton, T., Shah, A.K., and Thomas, P. ‘Understanding, testimony and interpretation in psychiatric diagnosis’ Medicine, Healthcare and Philosophy 12: 49-55
(2008) ‘Does understanding individuals require idiographic judgement?’ European Archives of Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience 258 Suppl 5:104–109
(2008) ‘EBM and evaluativism’ Philosophy Psychiatry and Psychology 15: 175-8
(2008) ‘Should comprehensive diagnosis include idiographic understanding?’ Medicine, Healthcare and Philosophy 11: 293-302
(2008) ‘Values based practice and reflective judgement’ Philosophy Psychiatry and Psychology 15: 125-133
(2008) ‘Why the idea of framework propositions cannot contribute to an understanding of delusion’ Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences 7: 159-175
(2007) ‘An aesthetic grounding for the role of concepts in experience in Kant, Wittgenstein and McDowell?’ Forum Philosophicum 12: 227-45
(2007) Banner, N.F. and Thornton, T. ‘The philosophy of psychiatry: the past, the present and the future: A review of the Oxford University Press series International Perspectives in Philosophy and Psychiatry’ Philosophy Ethics and Humanities of Medicine 2:9
(2007) Fulford, K.W.M and Thornton, T. ‘Fanatical about “Harmful Dysfunction”’ World Psychiatry 6: 161-162
(2006) ‘The Ambiguities of Mild Cognitive Impairment’ Philosophy Psychiatry and Psychology 12: 21-7
(2006) ‘Judgement and the role of the metaphysics of values in medical ethics’ Journal of Medical Ethics 32: 365-370
(2006) ‘Tacit knowledge as the unifying factor in EBM and clinical judgement’ Philosophy Ethics and Humanities of Medicine 1:2
(2005) Fulford, K.W.M, Broome, M., Stanghellini, G. and Thornton, T. ‘ Looking With Both Eyes Open: Fact and Value in Psychiatric Diagnosis?’ World Psychiatry 4: 78-87
(2004) ‘Wittgenstein and the limits of empathic understanding in psychopathology’ International Review of Psychiatry 16: 216-224
(2003) ‘Psychopathology and two varieties of narrative account of the self’ Philosophy Psychiatry and Psychology 10: 361-367
(2002) Middlemost, M; Mullins, S; Brown, A; Catalan, M; Thornton, T ; Woodhead, J; Ahluwahlia, N; Boston, P; and Spence, S (2002) ‘Current problems with the concept of delusion’ Progress in Neurology and Psychiatry 6: 10-13
(2002) ‘Reliability and validity in psychiatric classification: values and neo-Humeanism’ Philosophy Psychiatry and Psychology 9: 229-235
(2002) ‘Thought insertion, cognitivism and inner space’ Cognitive neuropsychiatry 7: 237-249
(2000) ‘Mental Illness and Reductionism: Can Functions be Naturalized?’ Philosophy, Psychiatry and Psychology 7: 67-76
(1997) ‘Reasons and causes in philosophy and psychopathology’ Philosophy Psychiatry and Psychology 4
(1997) ‘Intention, rule following and the strategic role of Wright’s order of determination test’ Philosophical Investigations 20: 136-147

Book chapters and other publications

(2010) ‘On wishing for a paradigm shift’ Association for the Advancement of Philosophy and Psychiatry Bulletin 17: 17-19
(2009) ‘On the interface problem in philosophy and psychiatry’ in Bortolotti, L. and Broome, M. Psychiatry as Cognitive Neuroscience, Oxford: Oxford University Press: 121-136
(2009) ‘Constitutive evaluativist externalism (Commentary on Zachar, P. and Kendler, K. ‘Psychiatric Disorders: A Conceptual Taxonomy’)’ Association for the Advancement of Philosophy and Psychiatry Bulletin 15: 9-12
(2009) Thornton, T. and Fulford, K.W.M. ‘Philosophical Perspectives on Health, Illness and Clinical Judgement in Psychiatry and Medicine’ in Ihsan M. Salloum, I.M and Mezzich, J.E. (eds) Psychiatric Diagnosis: Patterns and Prospects, Hoboken: Wiley: 15-27
(2009) Fulford, K.W.M. (Bill) and Thornton, T. ‘The role of meanings and values in the history and philosophy of the science of psychiatry’ in Basant Puri, B. and Treasaden, I. Psychiatry – an evidence-based text for the MRCPsych, London: Hodder Arnold, Health Sciences
(2007) ‘Editorial: Towards real persons: Clinical judgement and philosophy of psychiatry’ South African Journal of Psychiatry 13: 73-75
(2007) ‘The unexamined life is not worth living: philosophy as a natural component of self-conscious psychiatric practice’ Association for the Advancement of Philosophy and Psychiatry Bulletin 14: 10-13.
(2006) ‘John McDowell’s Mind and World’ in Shand, J. (ed) Central Works in Philosophy Vol 5 Chesham: Acumen: 291-315.
(2005) ‘Discursive psychology, social constructionism and dementia’ in J. Hughes, S. Louw and S. Sabat (eds) Dementia: Mind, Meaning and the Person Oxford: Oxford University Press: 123-141
(2005) ‘John McDowell’ in Brown, S. (ed) Dictionary of Twentieth Century British Philosophers Bristol: Thoemmes Continuum
(2005) co-authored Fulford, K.W.M., Broome, M., Stanghellini, G. (and Thornton, T.) ‘Progress in five parts: an update on developments in the philosophy of psychiatry’ in Christodoulou, G. N. (ed) Advances in Psychiatry Vol II Geneva: The World Psychiatric Association: 243-9.
(2004) ‘Reductionism/Anti-reductionism’ in J. Radden (ed) The philosophy of psychiatry, Oxford: Oxford University Press: 191-204
(1996) ‘Intention, rule following and the strategic role of Wright’s order of determination test’ in C Martinez Vidal & L Villegas Forero (eds) Verdad logica representacion y mundo Universidade de Santiago de Compostela

Blog

(Since October 2007) In The Space of Reasons - http://inthespaceofreasons.blogspot.com

Teaching

Philosophy and mental health; philosophy; philosophy of nursing and medicine.

External

Other professional activities

Professeur Invité at the Centre de Recherche Médecine, Sciences, Santé, Santé Mentale et Société, Université Paris Descartes
Member, Scientific Committee for the International Conference in Philosophy of Psychiatry, Sun City South Africa 2007, Dallas, Texas 2008, Lisbon 2009, Manchester 2010, Gothenburg 2011
Editorial board member Mental Illness
Editorial board member International Journal of Person-Centered Medicine
External examiner, BA Philosophy, Department of Philosophy, Roehampton University 2006-2010
External examiner, MA Philosophy, Department of Philosophy, University of Hertfordshire 2007-
External adviser for the validation of new joint degrees in Philosophy, Royal Holloway 2010-
External member Professorial appointments committee, University of Wolverhampton 2010-
Member of Consultation Group for the INPCM-WHO Project on Developing Measures to Assess Progress towards People-centered Care
Mentor, Social Aetiology of Mental Illness (SAMI) Training Program
Web: http://knowledgex.camh.net/researchers/areas/sami

Reviewer for:

American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly
Bioethics
BMC Medical Ethics
Erkenntnis
Ethical Theory and Moral Practice
Genomics, Society and Policy Journal
History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences
Journal of Mental Health Training Education and Practice
Journal of Medical Ethics
Medical Humanities
Mind and Language Philosophical Quarterly
Phenomenology and Cognitive Science
Philosophical Psychology
Philosophy, Psychiatry and Psychology
Polish Journal of Philosophy
Synthese
Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics

MIT Press
Oxford University Press, Oxford
Oxford University Press, New York
Routledge, London

ESRC
AHRC
Research Foundation Flanders (FWO)
Member British Philosophical Association
Member Society for Applied Philosophy