Challenging psychiatry’s use of the disease model

• Zoom
• 20th Sep '24 11.00 am – 2.00 pm

Mental health conditions are some of the most common of all health conditions, yet psychiatry is a poor relation of other medical specialities.  It is often criticised by other mental health professionals and by the public. Despite the caricatures of psychiatrists in the media, psychiatrists themselves are often well-liked by their patients.  So what is the problem? There is plenty of evidence that it is because psychiatry projects itself as a kind of neurology, preoccupied with finding things wrong with the brain that can be cured by medication or other physical treatments. In this seminar and in my forthcoming book with the same titled (to be published by Taylor and Francis this year), I summarise the evidence that this is the wrong model, consider other approaches, and present my conclusion that psychiatry should focus on the people with the brains (and the minds and the social circumstances) and the existence of mental health conditions in their lives.

Digby Tantam is a director of the Existential Academy and a practising existential psychotherapist.  He is an emeritus professor of psychiatry in the University of Sheffield, and a visiting professor of psychology at Middlesex University.  He worked as a general psychiatrist and also as a medical psychotherapist in the NHS for over 40 years.

CPD certificates will be available.