7pm - 9pm, Tuesday 27th October
Sir James Matthews Building
Southampton Solent University Conference Centre
157 - 187 Above Bar Street
Southampton
SO14 7NN

Tickets: £3 in advance, £5 on the door.

A diverse panel of experts investigate the nature of mental illness, debating topics such as:

Existence of Mental Illness
Does mental illness exist and how does this relate to psychotropic medications and their effect on personal identity? Branded a key player in the anti-psychiatry movement, Professor of psychiatry, Thomas Szasz, famously declared mental illness to be a myth, claiming that psychiatrists do more harm than good, that mental illness is not a pathology and that the way forward is away from diagnosis and treatment and towards freedom and responsibility. Is his position justified?

Psychiatric Classification
The International Classification of Diseases contains hundreds of carefully defined mental conditions, but do they describe pre-existing clusters of symptoms or has society constructed arbitrary boundaries which creates the impression of natural kinds. Does classification drive medicalisation of mental conditions to the detriment of patient care?

Moral Resposibility
Freedom and responsibility may sound appealing, but to what extent can one be autonomous and have mental control over mental illness? If someone is mentally ill, can they be blamed for their actions? What if they have a personality disorder, a condition not classed as a mental illness? If there is always a causal pathway leading to action, whether genetic or environmental, can anyone be blamed for anything?

Please join us after this event for drinks and an exhibition viewing at The Art House Gallery, directly across the road from the venue.

Chair:

Professor James Ladyman
James Ladyman is professor of philosophy at the University of Bristol, and co-editor of The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science. He was the Honorary Secretary of The British Society for the Philosophy of Science from 2003 to 2007. He is the author of Understanding Philosophy of Science (Routledge 2002) which received a Choice Outstanding Academic Title Award, and, with Don Ross, Every Thing Must Go: Metaphysics Naturalized (Oxford University Press, 2007). He has published many articles on the philosophy of science. In 2005 he was awarded a Philip Leverhulme Prize.

Hanna Pickard
Hanna Pickard is a philosopher of mind and psychiatry at All Souls College, Oxford, and a therapist at the Complex Needs Service, an NHS therapeutic community for people with personality disorder. She has published articles on the emotions and other minds, body awareness and action, and the nature of mental illness, in particular, schizophrenia and personality disorder. Her current research,which aims to integrate clinical data with the philosophy of mind and psychiatry, is about responsibility and morality within personality disorder.

Rita Carter
Rita Carter is an award-winning science writer who specializes in neuroscience and consciousness. Her 1998 book, Mapping the Mind was the first to present a generally accessible overview of human brain function as revealed by brain imaging technology. It has been
translated into 11 languages and remains a key text in the area. Her second book, Exploring Consciousness uses a unique combination of scientific and philosophical enquiry to illuminate the puzzling nature of human subjectivity and Multiplicity - the new science of personality challenges conventional views about human identity. Her latest: The Brain Book is a pictorial encyclopedia which pulls
together the latest research into the human mind, in a uniquely accessible format.

Carlos Hoyos
For the last five years Carlos Hoyos has been a Consultant Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist at the Orchard Centre, the main service for community mental health services to children under 14 in Southampton. He is also the Lead tutor of the team teaching child mental health to undergraduates in Southampton Medical School, general psychiatric and child specialist trainees.

Before he moved to Southampton, with his wife and two small children, he was a lecturer at UCL and a trainee at the Tavistock Clinic in London. He was born in Mallorca and has been living in the UK for 18 years.

Professor Chris Thompson
Professor Chris Thompson is the Chief Medical Officer of Priory Group, the leading European independent provider of mental health services. He is currently also a member of Council of University College London and a board member of Depression Alliance. He has served as the professor of psychiatry and Head of the Medical School in Southampton, and as Registrar and Vice President of the Royal College of Psychiatrists.

To find out more please see The Myth of Mental Illness website