“What is ‘mental illness’ today – five hard questions” Nikolas Rose (Public Seminar, University of Nottingham, 15 May 2013)

Research Summary: Mental Illness and Mental Health Systems

Topic: Critical examination of contemporary definitions, diagnoses, and conceptualizations of mental illness

Key Questions Addressed: (1) Is there an epidemic of mental disorder?; (2) Does understanding lie through the brain?; (3) What is the role of diagnosis and diagnostic manuals?; (4) Should we pursue early identification of at-risk individuals?; (5) What is the place of patients and survivors in mental health systems?

Speaker: Professor Nikolas Rose, Head of Department of Social Science, Health and Medicine, King's College London

Event Details: Public seminar, University of Nottingham, 15 May 2013; admission free

Research Focus: Empirical, conceptual, professional, and ethical dilemmas in contemporary mental health discourse and the politics of mental health

Scholarly Context: Draws from author's work on biomedicine, power, neuroscience, and the social management of mind in twenty-first century contexts

Documentation: Video of lecture available on YouTube (posted 11 June 2013)

What is ‘mental illness’ today – five hard questions
Professor Nikolas Rose
4.30pm, Wednesday 15 May
B63, Law & Social Sciences Building, University Park, University of Nottingham

Abstract: In this talk I want to characterize the ‘territory’ of mental illness today by posing five hard questions that seem to me to represent genuine empirical, conceptual, professional and ethical dilemmas. My questions are: Is there an‘epidemic’ of mental disorder?; Does the path to understanding mental disorder lie through the brain?; What is the role of diagnosis and of diagnostic manuals?; Should we seek early identification of those at risk of future mental pathology? What is the place of patients, users, survivors, consumers in the mental health system? On the basis of this discussion, I will conclude by trying to draw out some lessons for the politics of mental health today.

Nikolas Rose is Professor of Sociology and Head of the Department of Social Science, Health and Medicine at King’s College, London. He was previously Martin White Professor of Sociology, and Director of the BIOS Centre for the Study of Bioscience, Biomedicine, Biotechnology and Society at the London School of Economics and Political Science. He is also co-PI for the EPSRC funded Centre for Synthetic Biology and Innovation (CSynBI). His most recent books are The Politics of Life Itself : Biomedicine, Power, and Subjectivity in the Twenty-First Century (Princeton, 2006); Governing The Present (with Peter Miller, Polity, 2008) and Neuro: the New Brain Sciences and the Management of the Mind (with Joelle Abi-Rached, Princeton, forthcoming, 2012). He is a longstanding member of the Editorial Board of Economy and Society, co-editor of BioSocieties: an interdisciplinary journal for social studies of the life sciences, Chair of the European Neuroscience and Society Network, and a member of numerous advisory groups including the Nuffield Council on Bioethics.

Admission free, all welcome. Email Michelle Fusco to confirm attendance.

NB: Update from CMH blog editors on 11 June 2013: a video of Prof Rose’s talk has now been made available on YouTube.