San Raffaele Spring School of Philosophy 2019 – SRSSP

San Raffaele Spring School of Philosophy 2019 – SRSSP

San Raffaele University and its Research Centres, alongside with the Ph.D. program in Philosophy, organize the International Conference and Spring School:

Psychopathology and Phenomenology: Perspectives

San Raffaele Spring School of Philosophy 2019 (SRSSP 2019)

Milan, June 4-6, 2019

New deadline for submissions: January 30th, 2019

As a method for thinking how things are present to us, independently of their reality, phenomenology has always been an ally to psychiatry, as a framework for understanding or defining abnormal mental experiences and pathologies. In the past, the work of authors such as Karl Jaspers, Eugène Minkowski and Ludwig Binswanger provided the very foundations of the discipline in Europe. In recent years, the phenomenological approach to psychopathology has regained centre stage in philosophy and in scientific psychiatric research both in Europe and the Anglo-American community, for it provides an alternative to, or a complement for, physicalist and third-person perspective accounts of mental disorders. Contemporary research topics in phenomenological psychiatry include accounts of specific conditions, such as schizophrenia, or depression, alongside with framework issues such as the role of the embodied dimensions of experience, the relation between first-person perspectives and neuroscientific evidence, and the adequacy of current nosologies.

On the occasion of the appearance of the Oxford Handbook of Phenomenological Psychopathology (upcoming June 2019), the school will open with a special section,

“The State of the Art: Philosophy and Psychiatry. The Oxford Handbooks”

that will feature, as invited speakers, K.W.M. Fulford (University of Oxford, Founder Editor of the book series International Perspectives in Philosophy and Psychiatry) and G. Stanghellini (G. D’Annunzio University of Chieti, Chief Editor of the Oxford Handbook of Phenomenological Psychopathology).

The School will also feature three further sections, covering three broad research areas connected with the main theme. For each of them, a leading philosopher of psychiatry will introduce the discussion with a keynote lecture, and we invite submission of contributed papers. The sections are the following:

Philosophical frameworks for psychopathology

Philosophy may provide general conceptual frameworks for the understanding and explanation of psychopathology, such as Embodiment and Enactivism. On the specific level, it can develop original accounts of disorders, such as schizophrenia and depression, and symptoms, such as delusions, by reflecting on the nature of the self, language, and consciousness.

Science in Progress. New Conceptual Frames for Empirical Psychopathology and for Psychiatry

There is currently a lively debate on status of psychiatry as a science, with a focus on the adequacy of current nosologies, such as DSM-5, and the proposals for new ones, such as Research Domains Criteria (RDoC), and holistic approaches.

Society, Politics and the Bodies of Mental Disease

One of the recent trends in the study of psychopatology is the attention to the social, historical and political determinants of diseases. In the Italian and Continental tradition, this is a fruitful legacy of the critical-psychiatry movement. Moreover, mental diseases are now also increasingly considered in their bodily dimension, and connected with concepts such as gender, or ethnicity.

Invited Speakers:

K.W.M. Fulford, University of Oxford

“The State of the Art: Philosophy and Psychiatry. The Oxford Handbooks” (Special section)

T. Fuchs, Heidelberg University

Delusion, Reality and Intersubjectivity. An Enactive Account of Delusions” (Section 1)

M. Ratcliffe, University of York

Phenomenology, Psychopathology, and Language” (Section 1)

F. Benedetti, San Raffaele University

“Systems for Social Processes: Understanding Others” (Section 2)

G. Stanghellini, University of Chieti

“The State of the Art: Philosophy and Psychiatry. The Oxford Handbooks” (Special section)

“Pheno-phenotypes. For a Phenomenological Nosology” (Section 2)

C. Colombo, San Raffaele University

“Depression, Biology and Gender” (Section 3)

L.J. Kirmayer, McGill University, Montreal

“Cultural phenomenology and psychopathology: Implications for Psychiatric Theory, Research and Practice” (Section 3)

Scientific Direction:

Marta Boniardi (Vita-Salute San Raffaele University), Roberta De Monticelli (Vita-Salute San Raffaele University), Francesca De Vecchi (Vita-Salute San Raffaele University), Francesca Forlè (Vita-Salute San Raffaele University), Elisabetta Lalumera (University of Milano-Bicocca), Ernestina Politi (San Raffaele Hospital, Vita-Salute San Raffaele University), Massimo Reichlin (Vita-Salute San Raffaele University), Elisabetta Sacchi (Vita-Salute San Raffaele University), Roberta Sala (Vita-Salute San Raffaele University), Sarah Songhorian (Vita-Salute San Raffaele University).

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