Mental health is today more important than ever and one of the great unresolved issues of contemporary societies. But what is mental health? what is a psychiatric disorder? The aim of this project is to attempt to clarify the nature of psychiatric disorders through an analysis of their social and normative aspects. The most widespread conception of psychiatry is that of a science responsible for identifying and treating disorders that are biologically based anomalies whose nature is independent of any human conception or activity. However, psychiatric diagnoses usually appeal to implicit norms and values. This aspect, together with the cultural and contextual variability of certain pathologies, suggests that the social component of disorders goes beyond what might appear at first sight. The project will apply some theories of social cognition in philosophy of mind to two particular phenomena: delusions, such as Cotard's syndrome, where patients claim to be dead; and depression, a widespread disorder in the West that is identified by a lack of motivation and interest or the absence of emotional reactions.