Philosophy and Psychiatry: Just the Facts

[Reblogged from my blog.  Thanks for the suggestion, Julie!]

As readers know, I’ve been fuming for the last several days about the latest Philosophy, Psychiatry & Psychology issue–specifically the near total exclusion/marginalization of service users (not to mention women and ethnic racial minorities).  I decided to take a look at PPP’s editorial board, and the steering committee of the (overlapping) International Network for Philosophy and Psychiatry (INPP).  [For my "opinion pieces" on these issues, see here and here.]

We find:

  • not one recognizable or disclosed service user or survivor on either the board or committee (I could be wrong, but I’m about as savvy as it gets with respect to user/survivor academics)
  • no explicit (detectable) effort to in any way include service users/survivors/mad-identified scholars or advocates
  • a very small percentage of women; more on the PPP board than the INPP
  • few (if any?) members of under-represented ethnic/racial minority groups on either the board or committee
  • an editorial statement for the PPP that excludes any mention of user/survivors as relevant or central stakeholders:
    “PPP seeks to: (a) enhance the effectiveness of psychiatrists, clinical psychologists, and other mental health care workers as practitioners, teachers, and researchers by illuminating the philosophical issues embedded in these activities; and (b) advance philosophical theory by making the phenomena of psychiatry and clinical psychology more accessible to philosophers.”
  • Excerpt from an email addressed to the US Co-Editor of the PPP by yours truly (one of several, never answered; this one was written in 2010, nearly 3 years ago–and look how polite I was!):

    “I was hoping that you could provide me with some sort of explanation regarding PPPs editorial policy with regard to first-person accounts and commentaries more generally.  As a trained phenomenologist and continental philosopher I suppose I find it somewhat surprising that PPP’s editors have not made more of an attempt to publish and/or solicit both original articles and critical commentaries or responses from (academically trained) individuals with first person experiences of the psychiatric phenomena that are so often in question….  Would such submissions be considered for publication and/or solicitation?”

Who are the powers that be?  Bill Fulford, John Sadler, Giovanni Stanghellini.  Let us hold them accountable: ignorance of the exclusion/marginalization of Philosophy of Psychiatry’s often romanticized ‘objects’ of inquiry is simply untenable in 2013.

Views: 24

Comment by julie gosling on March 19, 2013 at 20:07
Keep spelling it out Nev!
When will you be in Durham?
I shall head on up to meet you :)
Comment by julie gosling on March 19, 2013 at 20:15
Delete Comment
Oh-and-by-the-way
Myself and Gina Hardesty persuaded the Journal of Social Work Education to recruit two service-user educators to their editorial and decision-making board about five years ago - one was a survivor of psychiatric services.
Prior to that - my organisation Advocacy in Action jointly edited with Suresearch (another service-user group) a ground-breaking issue of this international journal in which all articles were written or co-authored by service-user-educators
Moving from sole control of a 'special edition' to joint control of the mainstream journal seemed like the next logical step and I am proud that Gina and I achieved this level of representation for people with lived experience
Comment by Nev Jones on March 19, 2013 at 20:16

That's so encouraging to hear!  Can't wait to meet/talk in person.  I'll be in the UK in late July--haven't bought tickets yet. (And then back again in early-mid September.)

Comment by julie gosling on March 19, 2013 at 21:47
See You July - YESSSS!!

Add a Comment

You need to be a member of Mental Health in Higher Education Hub to add comments!

Join Mental Health in Higher Education Hub

Blog Posts

QMU launches the world's first Masters in Mad Studies

Posted by Jill Anderson on December 1, 2020 at 11:50 0 Comments

Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh is launching the world’s first master’s degree in Mad Studies. The MSc Mad Studies course is primarily a course for graduates with lived experience of mental health issues. It has been hailed by a leading international Mad Studies academic as the most exciting piece of curriculum development in the last 20 years!

Mad Studies is a recognised academic discipline that explores the knowledge and actions that have grown…

Continue

Unlearning through Mad Studies: disruptive pedagogical praxis

Posted by Jill Anderson on October 26, 2020 at 19:00 0 Comments

Medical discourse currently dominates as the defining framework for madness in educational praxis. Consequently, ideas rooted in a mental health/illness binary abound in higher learning, as both curriculum content and through institutional procedures that reinforce structures of normalcy. While madness, then, is included in university spaces, this inclusion proceeds in ways that continue to pathologize madness and disenfranchise mad people.

This paper offers Mad…

Continue

Stepchange: mentally healthy universities

Posted by Jill Anderson on October 16, 2020 at 15:48 0 Comments

Earlier this year, UUK published a refreshed version of its strategic framework, Stepchange: mentally healthy universities, calling on universities to prioritise the mental health of their students and staff by taking a whole university approach to mental health.

The Stepchange approach and shared set of principles inform the …

Continue

Think Ahead gets funding to boost its intake.

Posted by Jill Anderson on October 16, 2020 at 15:41 0 Comments

Fast-track mental health social work provider Think Ahead will expand its intake by 60% from next year following a government funding boost of at least £18m.

The Department of Health and Social Care has agreed a contract with Think Ahead to increase the number of trainees for its 2021 and 2022 cohorts from 100 to 160, with…

Continue

Transforming Mental Health Social Work videos

Posted by Jill Anderson on October 16, 2020 at 15:39 0 Comments

Health Education England has commissioned 11 videos centered on real-life experience of specialists in the social work field.

See the video playlist.

Transforming mental health social work - conference report

Posted by Jill Anderson on October 16, 2020 at 15:37 0 Comments

In February 2020 Health Education England and Skills for Care put on two major conferences about the role and development of mental health social work. 

Download the conference report.

Leadership in mental health social work - web pages

Posted by Jill Anderson on October 16, 2020 at 15:33 0 Comments

A section of the Skills for Care website has been developed for mental health social workers and AMHPs

View the web pages here.

Social work education and training in mental health, addictions and suicide: a scoping review protocol

Posted by Jill Anderson on October 16, 2020 at 15:29 1 Comment

Social workers are among the largest group of professionals in the mental health workforce and play a key role in the assessment of mental health, addictions and suicide. Most social workers provide services to individuals with mental health concerns, yet there are gaps in research on social work education and training programmes. The objective of this open access scoping review is to examine literature on social work education and training in mental health, addictions and…

Continue

Mental health nurse education: perceptions, access and the pandemic

Posted by Jill Anderson on October 16, 2020 at 15:25 0 Comments

With World Mental Health Day this Saturday, a new Nuffield Trust report discusses how more people might be attracted to apply to study mental health nursing, and the reasons why they might currently be less likely to do so.

Co-author Claudia Leone picks out some  key findings.

© 2024   Created by Jill Anderson.   Powered by

Badges  |  Report an Issue  |  Terms of Service