Events
Executive Committee meetings
- 4 March 2025 - agenda and minutes
- 10 December 2024 - agenda and minutes
- 6 September 2024 - agenda and minutes
- 12 March 2024 - agenda and minutes
- 5 December 2023 - agenda and minutes
- 18 April 2023 – agenda and minutes
- 17 January 2023 – minutes
- 20 September 2022 – agenda and minutes
- 11 January 2022 – minutes
- 7 September 2021 – minutes
- 12 January 2021 – minutes
- 11 January 2021 – minutes
- 18 May 2016 – agenda and minutes
- 12 January 2016 – minutes (inaugural meeting)
Annual General Meetings
- 8 September 2023 - agenda and minutes
- 11 June 2021 – AGM minutes
- 31 May 2019 – AGM minutes
- 18 May 2018 – AGM minutes
- 13 January 2017 – agenda and minutes
Future events
- 14 March 2025 - EPSIG event for Trainees. Find out more and book.
EPSIG 6th International Symposium
Friday 22 November 2024
Our keynote speakers have a unique mix of expertise and backgrounds including philosophy, psychology, primatology and of course, psychiatry. The symposium offers a unique opportunity to listen to and meet eminent speakers and delegates from diverse disciplines and backgrounds.
Joint event with the Philosophy SIG: an afternoon with Dr Iain McGilchrist
Friday 5 April 2024
EPSIG Trainee Workshop
Friday 1 March 2024 – Trainee Workshop.
EPSIG AGM and Webinar Lecture by Derek Tracy
The AGM was followed by a webinar lecture by Derek Tracy titled ‘Human Origins’. This was held online on Friday 8 September 2023.
EPSIG 5th International Symposium
The Evolutionary Psychiatry Special Interest Group 5th International Symposium was held at Prescot Street on Friday 10 March 2023.
Evolutionary Psychiatry (EP) Workshop
27 January 2023 – 10am-5pm
RCPsych, 21 Prescot Street, London
We held a one-day face-to-face workshop on Evolutionary Psychiatry (EP) at the College in London on 27 January 2023 aimed at interested trainees within the UK as part of the EPSIG trainee engagement programme.
EPSIG 4th International Symposium
29 October 2021 – 9am-5pm
Online via Zoom
The Executive Committee of the Evolutionary Psychiatry Special Interest Group held the 4th International Evolutionary Psychiatry Symposium on 29 October 2021 via Zoom. The symposium featured a line-up 6 keynote speakers who are leading evolutionary thinkers and authors representing a wide diversity of disciplines and backgrounds.
The Darwinian Roots of Attachment Theory – Half day webinar
19 March 2021 – 1.30-4.30pm
Please see programme from the day and you can view a recording of the event in your own time. Presentations are below:
- Annie Swanepoel – Understanding child development form an evolutionary perspective
- Martin Brune – Adult attachment and life history patterns in people with borderline personality disorder
- Jeremy Holmes – Bowlby, Darwin and group selection: a free energy neuroscience perspective
Presentations from EPSIG AGM and Evolutionary Perspectives on Suicide Workshop, London
31 May 2019
Please see the programme for the day.
- Mohammed Abbas – An Introduction to Suicide : Facts, Challenges and a Model (PPT)
- C A Soper- Adaptation to the Suicide Niche
Presentations from the Third EPSIG Symposium, London
22 March 2019
- Dr Gerhard Medicus – Human ethology and the understanding of personality disorder
- Dr Haley Peckham – Surviving at the cost of suffering: The mixed blessings of our evolved neuroplastic brains
- Bernadette Wren – Can evolutionary thinking shed light on gender diversity: A view from the clinic
- Professor Markus Rantala – An evolutionary model of depression
- Professor Daniel Nettle- Depression: What (if anything) is it, and what are its evolutionary origins
- Professor Marco Del Giudice – Form follows function: An evolutionary model of the structure of psychopathology
Recordings of these lectures can be viewed on our YouTube channel
Presentations from the 2nd EPSIG Symposium
12 January 2018
Live recordings from the symposium are now available on our YouTube channel or through the links below.
- Welcome Address from the EPSIG Chair
- How evolutionary thinking can help us to understand ADHD
- An Evolutionary Account of Brain Laterality
- Life History Theory: A Framework for the Understanding of Personality Disorder
- From caring to compassion: an evolutionary journey and social implication exploration
- Evolutionary Models of Mental Disorders (II) Eating Disorders
- What clinicians can learn from evolutionary psychiatry
Presentations from the 2nd EPSIG Half-day Scientific Meeting
18 May 2018
- Evolutionary aspects of ageing and Alzheimer’s – Paul St John-Smith
- Mental illness in hunter-gatherers: Child care and mismatch – Nikhil Chaudhary.
Presentations from the EPSIG Half-day Scientific Meeting
19 May 2017
- Professor Carmine Pariante – Depression and Inflammation: A Life-Saving Response to Stress Gone Awry
- Meeting Agenda 19th May.
Presentations from EPSIG AGM
January 2017
- Darwinian Theory and Psychiatry: a Historical Perspective presented by Hannah Sheftel.
Presentations from the first EPSIG Symposium
- Flyer – The First Symposium on Evolutionary Psychiatry
- 7 videos from the first EPSIG Symposium
- Why should Psychiatry now consider Evolution
- The Evolution of the Social Mind
- The Outgroup Intolerance Hypothesis for Schizophrenia
- Why We Get Sad: How Evolution Makes Sense of Emotional Disorders
- Autism: An evolutionary perspective
- The case for including evolutionary theory into the MRCPsych Curriculum.
Videos
Dr Derek Tracy and Dr Riadh Abed – Mental health from an evolutionary perspective (21 May 2020)
Dr Derek Tracy and Dr Riadh Abed hosted a special event for RCPsych staff on Thursday 21 May to mark Mental Health Awareness Week 2020.