[Plexus]

I'm not a psychology student, but I would like to read something comprehensive but relatively entry-level about mental illness and pharmaceutical drugs from an empirical perspective. I'm not well versed in biology or chemistry, but I can do extra reading to fill any epistemic gaps. I'm not looking for a book on psychotherapy.

My background is in analytic philosophy, so I am familiar with some of the fundamental scientific/ontological problems related to the mind/brain distinction. If the text book authors were fairly well trained to think about the ontological implications of modern psychiatric theories, as well as problems of reductionism in bridging the biology/chemistry gap, that would be awesome, but I can always supplement my reading in regards to this as well.

Are there any good text books out there that I could read?

[Utterly]

Most of the psychiatry books I have are very topic specific. I'd suggest as a primer for your purposes a psychiatric nursing guide; a clinical consult, perhaps. Springer *just* released one as I recall.

Also I'd suggest heading on over to "student doctor network" They are far more likely to be neck deep in books, including psychiatry, and likely have opinions on same.