Jennifer Radden

Professor Jennifer Radden is an Honorary Visiting Professor in the Department of Philosophy at the University of York. She retired from teaching at the University of Massachusetts, Boston, after a distinguished career. Her work focuses on the Philosophy of Psychiatry, exploring ethical and conceptual issues in mental health, including the history of melancholy, anorexia nervosa, and the nature of mental disorders. She co-edited Mental Health as Public Health: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on the Ethics of Prevention (2019) and authored Melancholic Habits: Burton’s Anatomy & the Mind Sciences (2017).

Her research integrates historical, philosophical, and clinical perspectives, addressing topics such as psychiatric classification, virtue ethics in clinical practice, and the ethical implications of public health approaches to mental health. She has contributed to debates on delusion theory, identity fragmentation in mental disorders, and cross-cultural understandings of psychiatric suffering.

Professor Radden’s publications span monographs, edited volumes, and over 50 refereed articles in journals like Philosophy, Psychiatry & Psychology and Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice. Her work emphasizes the intersection of normative ethics, historical analysis, and contemporary clinical practice. She has also engaged with feminist bioethics and the role of memoirs in understanding mental illness narratives.