Who Gets to Call Whom Mad? And With What Right? - Richard Gipps 

Who gets to decide, and on what basis, who is mad? Who gets to say what is reality and who is delusional? We can say that John is mad because he thinks aliens are after him. Such a claim seems to make sense; after all, there are no aliens after John. John has a false belief. But why does that false belief serve as a basis for calling John mad? We all have some false beliefs. Is it because the belief is atypical and odd? But, then again, there are people who are firm believers in odd things, and we don’t classify them as mad. Whose judgment about reality values more than others? Who sets the standards for what counts as real or as delusion? Am I to be considered mad just because I disagree with the majority or because others cannot understand me? In this lecture, Richard Gipps explores the question of who, and on what basis, gets to call someone else mad.
This is the fifth lecture in the London Lecture Series 2023/24, which this year is on the subject of Madness and Mental Health. Watch the whole series here: • Madness and Mental Hea...
Presentation of Speaker - 00:00
Lecture - 01:00
Q&A - 44:00