From Words to Worlds. How Metaphors and Language Shape Mental Health

Through this contribution I aim to show how language and metaphors shape our mental health, and how overcoming a diagnosis-centred approach in favour of a person-centred approach one may be of great help for the healing journey and in the therapeutic context. Starting from a critical reflection on the theoretical principles at the core of current use of psychiatric language, I propose a richer and more complex use of linguistic patterns through a broader consideration of mental phenomena. To reach these goals, this work is divided into three sections: in the first I scrutinise the task of psychiatry, in the second section I explore psychiatric classifications and their language, and in the third part I attempt to elucidate why and how a hermeneutic phenomenologically informed approach to mental health can be beneficial for the diagnosis of mental health issues. This contribution aims to serve as a critical basis for the dialogue among clinicians and philosophers; for mental health professionals, I hope to bring into discussion the use of language in the diagnostic process, the recourse to a third-person approach to describe diseases, and the use of psychopathological vocabulary. For philosophers, to explore the notion of plurality, an element that has only tangentially been investigated by philosophy throughout its history, but which is central to the understanding of every form of life, including those who are considered pathological.