Full programme can be found at this link.
Psychiatry has repeatedly embraced ideas and practices that seemed straightforward in their time and are now contested. This conference examines several such cases — from the rise and fall of malarial therapy and the disappearance of catatonia as a common diagnosis, to the contested fate of schizophrenia as a category and the shift from clinical paternalism to patient autonomy. Speakers include Andrew Scull (UCSD) on psychiatric revolution, Edward Bullmore (Cambridge) on what happened to schizophrenia, Simon Jarrett on historical myths about disability, and Graham Ash on malarial therapy, alongside papers on the catatonia paradigm and changing models of the clinician–patient relationship. The conference also includes a presentation of the HoPSIG Essay Prize.
Attendees should expect to have their assumptions about the past — and the present — examined.