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  • About the Authors

Natalie Banner is a postdoctoral research fellow at the Wellcome Trust-funded Centre for the Humanities and Health at King’s College London, conducting research in the field of philosophy of psychiatry. Her PhD focused on conceptual questions surrounding the assessment of decision-making capacity, particularly the role played by judgments of rationality in patients with psychiatric diagnoses. She can be reached via e-mail at natalie.banner@kcl.ac.uk.

Richard P. Bentall has recently been appointed professor of Clinical Psychology at The Institute for Psychology, Health and Society at Liverpool University. He has previously held Chairs at the Universities of Manchester and Bangor. His research interests focus on the psychological mechanisms underlying symptoms of severe mental illness, such as hallucinations and delusions, and also in the development of effective psychological treatments for people with psychosis. He can be reached via e-mail at richard.bentall@liverpool.ac.uk

Neelke Doorn is a researcher at Delft University of Technology where she prepares a doctoral thesis in the field of Engineering Ethics. The topic is ‘Moral responsibility in R&D networks.’ She is also affiliated to the Centre of Ethics at the Radboud University Nijmegen. Neelke Doorn has published on topics within the field of applied ethics, notably engineering ethics and medical ethics. She recently published in Ethical Perspectives, Science and Engineering Ethics and the Journal of Business Ethics. He can be contacted via e-mail at N.Doorn@tudelft.nl

Peter Lucas is Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Central Lancashire, Preston, UK. He studied Philosophy at Lancaster University, receiving his PhD in 1998. He has previously published in the areas of professional ethics, bioethics, environmental ethics, and modern European philosophy and has recently completed a monograph on ethics and self-knowledge. He can be contacted via e-mail at Plucas1@uclan.ac.uk

Richard Mullen is a Senior Lecturer and Consultant Psychiatrist. He has written elsewhere on the nature of delusions and their relationship with other phenomena, and on compulsory treatment. He can be contacted via email at richard.mullen@stonebow.otago.ac.nz

Ajit Shah is Professor of Ageing, Ethnicity and Mental Health at the University of Central Lancashire, Preston, United Kingdom, and Consultant in Old Age Psychiatry at West London Mental Health NHS Trust. He has widespread research interests including mental capacity, mental capacity and mental health legislation, elderly suicides, and transcultural psychiatry. He can be contacted via email at ajitshah123@btinternet.com

Giovanni Stanghellini is Professor of Dynamic Psychology and Psychopathology at Chieti University (Italy). He has written extensively on the [End Page 173] philosophical foundations of psychopathology, especially from a phenomenological and anthropological viewpoint. He is co-editor of the Series International Perspectives in Philosophy and Psychiatry, and associate editor of the journal Psychopathology. He has founded (with K. W. M. Fulford and J. Z. Sadler) the International Network for Philosophy and Psychiatry. He chairs the World Psychiatric Association (WPA) Section on the Humanities, and the Association of European Psychiatrists (EPA) Section on Philosophy and Psychiatry. He can be contacted via email at giostan@libero.it

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 coauthor of the Oxford Textbook of Philosophy and Psychiatry (OUP 2006). He established the Philosophy and Mental Health distance learning teaching programme. He can be contacted via email at TThornton1@uclan.ac.uk

Toby Williamson works for a UK charity that undertakes research, development, policy, and public information projects on mental health and mental health problems including dementia and issues affecting people with learning disabilities. Between 2004 and 2005 he was co-chair of the Making Decisions Alliance which successfully campaigned in support of the Mental Capacity Act and in 2006 he was seconded to the Ministry of...

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