The London Lecture Series
Subscribed: 34Played: 216
Subscribe
© 2025 The Royal Institute of Philosophy
Description
What is mental health? Can we make sense of psychosis? What’s the connection between mental health and concepts including race & evolution?
Explore these questions, among others, through the lens of philosophy at the 2023/4 London Lectures.
35 Episodes
Reverse
In this episode Kieron O’Hara examines how digital technology shapes our memories and alters our perception of the past, questioning the integrity of human memory in the age of social media and AI. Part of TRIP's London Lecture Series 2024-25, on Remembering and Forgetting.
In this episode, Erich Matthes navigates questions of conservation, and how some easily overlooked aspects of conservation can render its relationship with remembering more complex than it initially appears. Part of TRIP's London Lecture Series 2024-25, on Remembering and Forgetting.
In this lecture, Lucy Allais considers the reasons philosophers have given for thinking that forgiveness is puzzling, and argue that they are key to understanding why we need it – but also why we don’t always have to forgive. Part of TRIP's London Lecture Series 2024-25, on Remembering and Forgetting.
In this talk Alessandra Tanesini explores how Social Networking Sites, especially Facebook, act as platforms where memories can be shared, individuals memorialised, and where at times some feel shunned and forgotten. Alessandra delves into the potential consequences of offloading one’s private memories onto public digital platforms . Part of TRIP's London Lecture Series 2024-25, on Remembering and Forgetting.
We all have treasured memories, but what, exactly, is it that makes them so valuable to us? In this talk, Marya Schechtman explores this question, proposing that one source of value is the role such memories can play in constituting and maintaining both personal identity and intimate social relationships. But what are the implications of this, ethical or otherwise, for our practices of remembering? Part of TRIP's London Lecture Series 2024-25, on Remembering and Forgetting.
How does memory help some people grow after trauma? Post-traumatic growth (PTG) is a term which has been extensively studied by psychologists for the past 30 years, but also represents a new version of an ancient idea present in theology, philosophy, and cultural narratives – namely, that great good can come from adversity and suffering. In his talk, James Dawes explores the role of memory in PTG. How should trauma be remembered? Part of TRIP's London Lecture Series 2024-25, on Remembe...
Welcome to the London Lecture Series 2024-25! This year our talks focus on questions surrounding the theme of "Remembering and Forgetting." In this first talk of our latest series, Rima Bisu explores the important role forgetting plays in facilitating and protecting moral goods, such as forgiveness and privacy. Forgetting plays an indispensable role in our lives. Sometimes we want aspects of our identity to be forgotten, and there is a distinctive harm that accompanies the perman...
Why is it so tempting to understand spirituality / religion as counter to our conception of mental health, both in terms of its causality and its therapeutic restoration? Camilia Kong seeks to provide a philosophical diagnosis of the problem through Taylor’s discussion of the ‘immanent frame’ in Western modernity, and in so doing, provide the conceptual space for enriching understanding of divergent explanatory frameworks of mental disorder and cognitive disability in other sociocultur...
Since the 1970s, psychiatry has been in the grip of a paradigm I call ‘madness-as-dysfunction’. In this view, mental disorders happen when something inside the person isn’t working as it should, or is ‘broken.’ In his previous work, Justin Garson has identified an alternate paradigm, which he calls ‘madness-as-strategy,’ which sees mental illness in terms of purpose, adaptation and function. In this lecture, Justin contrasts these frameworks and outlines their implications for research...
Is mad life possible? Constrained by everyday mentalism, and controlled by various forms of psychiatrization of our biographies, we ask – can we live the lives we dream rather than dreaming that we live? Jasna Russo looks at the processes of knowledge making on what is considered madness and our ability to address each other in the second person, as you and me. Erick Fabris revisits a life of activism, from mutual aid to identity politics, and asks if Mad culture is possible in our tim...
Over six decades of research confirm there are ethnic inequalities in the experiences and outcomes of severe mental illness. The reasons for these differences have been debated, some arguing they meet treatment needs, others say they are manifestations of structural racism. Kim Bhui shares his views on conceptual confusions, causes, and remedies by drawing on recent Lived Experience Data on compulsory treatment, other research, and campaigns over three decades. Part of the Londo...
Many people suffer from psychiatric disorders and mental distress. But how are we to understand these problems, and how are we to treat them? Sanneke de Haan argues that we need to look at their developmental history, the social and cultural practices they take part in, and their existential (self)understanding. Part of the London Lecture Series 2023-24 | “Madness and Mental Health"
At present, psychiatry and psychology research in mental healthcare is focused on interventions. In contrast, social science and humanities research pursues its own, sometimes rather theoretically-driven agenda. In this lecture, Dr Armstrong and Dr Byrom, bring together these disparate fields of research with the aim of promoting more productive interdisciplinary interaction. Part of the London Lecture Series 2023-24 | “Madness and Mental Health"
Rose Mcabe, Lisa Bortolotti, and Michele Lim examine video-recorded encounters between young people and mental healthcare practitioners in emergency services, and describe communication that adopts an agential stance towards the young person. Part of the London Lecture Series 2023-24 | “Madness and Mental Health"
Claire Hogg discusses the theoretical basis for the defence of legal “insanity”. She explorse a number of competing analyses by which the relevance of a defendant’s mental disorder to their criminal culpability may be understood, including counterfactual analyses and capacity models. Part of the London Lecture Series 2023-24 | “Madness and Mental Health"
Somogy Varga and Andrew J. Latham report results from a series of experimental philosophy studies which aimed to examine how people understand and deploy concepts of health and disease, and the factors that influence their health-related judgments. Part of the London Lecture Series 2023-24 | “Madness and Mental Health"
Richard Gipps discusses the question of who gets to call whom mad, and with what right, and confronts the idea that the world of the 'mad' person is any less valid than that of the 'sane'. Part of the London Lecture Series 2023-24 | “Madness and Mental Health"
Can assisted dying for persons with mental disorders be permitted on ethical grounds? What should the criteria be for allowing a person to make the choice to end their own life? Part of the London Lecture Series 2023-24 | “Madness and Mental Health"
Mary Boyle & Lucy Johnstone examine the downfalls of the traditional methods of psychiatric diagnosis, and discuss the implications of their proposed Power Threat Meaning Framework as an alternative to psychiatric diagnosis. Part of the London Lecture Series 2023-24 | “Madness and Mental Health"
Louis Sass examines the enigmatic nature of human subjectivity and its history from the European Renaissance, the status of psychology and related fields in conceptualising human existence, and whether we as humans have lost the ability to see ourselves in great works of art. Part of the London Lecture Series 2023-24 | “Madness and Mental Health"
Comments
Download from Google Play
Download from App Store
United States