Philosophy and Psychiatry Professor Dan Zahavi

Oxford Philosophy Forum events
Psychiatry has since its very beginning had a troublesome relationship with philosophy. Some of the founding fathers of psychiatry believed philosophical knowledge to be indispensable for the clinical practice. Can such a verdict still be maintained, or would it improve the scientific credentials of psychiatry, if it resolutely turned its back to philosophy and became more like the other medical specialties? In my talk, I will suggest that the later move would be a grave mistake. I will show how our conception and description of a variety of different psychiatric conditions inevitable draw on various philosophical concepts and why a familiarity with those concepts and their theoretical foundations are important. I my talk, I will discuss some historical references, some clinical cases, and also exemplify how ideas from phenomenological philosophy have recently been put to use by Danish psychiatrists.
Speaker
Dan Zahavi (Professor of Philosophy, University of Copenhagen and University of Oxford; Director of Center for Subjectivity Research, University of Copenhagen
Convener
Dr Roxana Baiasu, Tutorial Fellow in Philosophy, Stanford University Center, Oxford; Associate Member, Faculty of Philosophy, Oxford University

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Thank you so much for sharing the video. Clarifying, interesting, and informative.