| Network
Over the years the Philosophy SIG has
supported meetings with the Philadelphia Association. In
2007, the two groups conjointly organised the 4th
RD Laing Conference. In recent years the Philosophy SIG has also
put on workshops or symposia in the Annual College Meeting.
Members of the SIG have been instrumental in
building up the International Network for Philosophy
and Psychiatry (INPP). The INPP website hosts a
Resource Base of references, précis, and links to relevant
publications in the interdisciplinary field. There are now links
with similar groups in over 20 countries. The INPP has pursued a
series of international conferences every few years:
Our connections with our American counterpart,
the Association for the Advancement of Philosophy and Psychiatry,
led to a new journal called
Philosophy Psychology and Psychiatry (PPP). Launched
in 1993, it is still published by Johns Hopkins
University Press.
Following the success of PPP, Oxford
University Press has brought out a series entitled International
Perspectives on Philosophy and Psychiatry. Professor Bill
Fulford, one of the founding members of the Philosophy SIG is joint
editor of the series (he was also a joint founding editor of PPP).
This series now has a large number of volumes relevant to the
philosophy and practice of psychiatry.
|
|
Local groups
The Philosophy SIG focuses on a central aim,
which is to encourage philosophical thought and conceptual analysis
amongst psychiatrists. To this end, we are delighted that the new
curriculum for the membership examination includes a specific focus
on philosophy and ethics. The Philosophy SIG continues to encourage
educational activities within the College both through workshops at
the Annual Meeting and also through other CPD activities, which
include the running of local groups.
Local groups always depend on the enthusiasm
of individuals and, as such, such groups have come and gone. The
Scottish Section of the Philosophy SIG continues to foster meetings
on a regular basis. There has been a strong group formed in London
centred on the Maudsley and, in recent years the HUMAN Group in
Nottingham has been encouraging interdisciplinary meetings.
Other groups have existed in the past in both
Sheffield and Oxford and the Philosophy SIG would always be pleased
to hear of local groups and to advertise their meetings.
Research is also an important part of the
dialogue between philosophers and psychiatrists. The Philosophy SIG
has links with research programmes at Warwick,
Oxford and London. Masters and doctoral programmes have been
available from a number of universities in recent years in relation
to philosophy and psychiatry. The Institute of Philosophy,
Diversity and Mental Health at the University
of Central Lancashire runs a distance learning masters
programme based on the Oxford Textbook of Philosophy and
Psychiatry.
|
|
Development
One of the functions of the Philosophy SIG is
to examine the ways in which philosophy can be brought to bear on
practice and also seen to emerge from the context of
practice. A main contention of those interested in the
Philosophy of Psychiatry is that conceptual problems lie at the
heart of clinical practice. It is for this reason that we are
excited that the work of the Philosophy SIG continues to burgeon
and broaden.
In the last few years we have seen philosophy
of psychiatry having an impact on initiatives within the Department
of Health through, for instance, the notion of values based
practice. For instance, we can now point to documents from the
National Institute for Mental Health in England (NIMHE) and the
National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) that
make reference to values based practice, a concept that has emerged
directly from work in the philosophy of psychiatry.
The development of the Philosophy SIG over the
last 15 years has been exciting and stimulating for all those
involved and there is no reason to believe that this excitement and
stimulation is set to do anything other than to continue in the
future.
|