History & Philosophy of Psychiatry (PSYT90088)

Philosophical and ethical issues pervade psychiatric thinking and everyday practice, as well as mental health policy. Key questions concern:

• the nature of mental health and illness, which in turn leads to questions about the nature of mind, brain and their connections (this takes in philosophy of mind and philosophical approaches to descriptive psychopathology)
• the causation, prevention and treatment of mental illness - types of psychological and neurobiological forms of thinking about these; issues raised by the rapid developments in neuroscience, including the emergence of neuroethics
• the ethics of psychiatric work, including confidentiality and involuntary treatment; codes of ethics
• the ethics of psychiatric care – resource allocation, mental health policy
• the ethics of psychiatric relations with business, notably the pharmaceutical industry
• the ethics of international mental health and transcultural psychiatric work in an era of globalisation
• psychiatry and science: is psychiatry a form of science? And, if so, in what ways, is psychiatry like other sciences, in what ways different?

The unit aims to provide an overview of this field, oriented particularly to the needs of psychiatrists- in-training, undertaking the training programme of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists (RANZCP), but the content will be relevant and of interest to non-trainee and non-medical participants involved in the mental health sector. The subject title includes the word ‘history’ as, wherever possible, the content will be taught with an historical emphasis, using case studies from the history of psychiatry (as well as from the present) to complement the more philosophical teaching.

A strong theme in the course will be the many implications of neuroscience, including social neuroscience, for psychiatry, including implications for concepts of self and human identity, for psychological enhancement, for surveillance and ‘mind-reading’ and for prediction and management of socially undesired traits. An emerging issue is the potential use of digital media and technologies (the web, apps), employing social neuroscience techniques in psychiatric care, eg, programs that assess facial movement and voice features to diagnose depression. The concept of ‘neurodiversity’ will be discussed as will some attempted integrations of psychological and neurobiological ways of thinking, such as neuropsychoanalysis.

An important topic will be the ethical and effective communication of psychiatric science to patients and to the general community.