?SICK NORMALITY
DE-MEDICALISING MENTAL DISTRESS
CICSI Summer School I 6 - 7 July 2023, Wivenhoe House Hotel, Colchester
“The summer school was a fantastic learning and networking opportunity.."
"It's been really a highlight of my academic life for the past two years. I'll definitely look forward to the next edition!"
“The summer school is an eye-opener for people who want to know about the limitations of mainstream psychiatry, and what alternatives there are...”
Why a Summer School on Sick Normality?
It is becoming the statistical norm to be diagnosed with at least one “mental disorder” in our lifetime. A prescription epidemic in industrialised countries means one in five adults are prescribed a psychiatric drug.
There is mounting evidence that despite huge sums invested in psychiatric research and clinical practice, psychiatry's diagnostic paradigm remains problematic, and its associated practices produce more harm than good.
When it has become normal that so many are in mental distress, has our normality become sick? Are there alternative ways forward except for medicalising more and more people? How can we address the driving factors behind the distress?
The participants of the 1st CICSI Summer School gained critical understanding of the current diagnostic paradigm and the associated practices in the mental health system and their socio-political context. They learned about frameworks for de-medicalising mental distress and shifting focus on addressing some of the underlying social ills. It was discussed how this could inform and reform existing practices through case studies or their own examples.
“Attending the CICSI Summer School left a profound impact on my thinking about mental distress. With an impressive line-up of speakers... [it] was an elegant exploration of a paradigm shift in mental health discourse. The organisers had meticulously carved a space that fostered curiousity and open dialogue and provided a warm and inclusive atmosphere. There were thought-provoking presentations, with complex ideas communicated in accessible ways and altogether engaging speakers."
“Great atmosphere for discussion and opportunity to approach the speakers and talk to them directly in very informal way. Very insightful content, giving material for deeper thinking on the topic, even for people who are not from the psychology/psychiatry field. Definitely worth it.”
“I came expecting some intellectual debate that would be interesting. I left motivated to incorporate change into my working life teaching on a mental health programme...
CICSI offers a glimpse behind the curtain of the big players in the world of psychiatry and encourages us to think and consider alternatives and to realise that the answers to suffering and illness are not so far out of reach.”
Speakers
University of Roehampton
Dr James Davies
Reader in Medical Anthropology & Psychology; influential author (including 2013 Cracked: why psychiatry is doing more harm than good; and 2022 Sedated: How Modern Capitalism Created Our Mental Health Crisis); therapist; and member of a group of experts supporting an all-party parliamentary group on prescribed drug dependence.
University College London
Prof Joanna Moncrieff
Professor of Critical and Social Psychiatry; practising psychiatrist; and one of the founding members and co-chair of the Critical Psychiatry network. Author of several books, including The Myth of the Chemical Cure (2008), A Straight Talking Introduction to Psychiatric Drugs (2009), and The Bitterest Pills (2013). Recently lead author of a systematic umbrella review of the serotonin theory of depression.
Director, Relational Psychoanalytic Therapy
Dr Anastasios Gaitanidis
Psychoanalytic Psychotherapist with many years of experience, including as supervisor; Director of Relational Psychoanalytic Therapy; Researcher and Academic (including at Regent's University); and Theory Editor at the European Journal of Psychotherapy and Counselling. Author and editor of several books, including The Sublime in Everyday Life and The Male in Analysis.
University of Essex
Prof Fabian Freyenhagen
Professor of Philosophy and member of the Essex Human Rights Centre. Working in areas of Social and Political Philosophy and Philosophy of Psychiatry, with a focus on mental distress and its social conditions, and on autonomy in the contexts of care. Author of Adorno's Practical Philosophy: Living Less Wrongly, and papers on Critical Theory and Social Pathology. CICSI's founding director.
Activist and Trainer, Hearing Voices Network
Dr Jacqui Dillon
Expert-by-experience; author; activist; speaker and trainer; and former National chair of the Hearing Voices Network in England. Honorary Lecturer in Clinical Psychology at the UEL. Editor of several books, including Demedicalising Misery and Models of Madness.
Clinical psychologist, award-winning poet
Dr Sanah Ahsan
Rooted in liberation and community psychology, drawing on therapeutics, poetics, and post-activism as interconnected practices to support racialised and marginalised people. Anti-racist training and published research on deconstructing whiteness. Media work includes presenting a Channel 4 Dispatches documentary exploring the medicalisation of young people’s distress
University of Leicester
Dr Gareth Morgan
Clinical psychologist and member of Power Threat Meaning Framework working group. Interested in how threats such as inequality, discrimination and other forms of social injustice are linked with mental distress. Also working on psychologists’ role in, and engagement with, the climate and ecological crises.
Brandenburg Medical School
Dr Timo Beeker
Practicing psychiatrist and academic researcher from Germany. Works with the Open Dialogue approach, seeking to find non-diagnostic ways forward within the existing psychiatric institutions. Interested in processes of medicalisation, how they are promoted and how they are experienced or resisted.
Final Schedule
DAY 1
ARRIVAL AND COFFEE FROM 9:00
09:30-10:00
WHY 'SICK NORMALITY'?
Welcome by Prof Fabian Freyenhagen
10:00-11:00
THE NATURE AND FUNCTION OF MENTAL HEALTH DIAGNOSIS
Prof Joanna Moncrieff
BREAK
11:30-12:30
IS MEDICALISATION DOING HARM?
Dr James Davies
LUNCH
14:00-15:30
DISCOMFORT, DISEMBODIMENT, AND DECONSTRUCTING WHITENESS IN PSYCHOLOGY
Dr Sanah Ahsan
BREAK
16:00-17:00
SOCIETY AND SELF IN THERAPY
Dr Anastasios Gaitanidis
DINNER AT WIVENHOE HOUSE HOTEL
DAY 2
09:00-10:00
'SICK NORMALITY': WHO IS SICK?
Prof Fabian Freyenhagen
BREAK
10:15-11:15
OPEN DIALOGUE
Dr Timo Beeker
BREAK
11:30-12:30
LISTENING TO OUR VOICES: THE WORK OF THE HEARING VOICES MOVEMENT
Dr Jacqui Dillon
LUNCH
13:30-14:30
POWER THREAT MEANING FRAMEWORK
Dr Gareth Morgan
BREAK
14:45-16:15
OPEN FORUM INCL. CASE DISCUSSIONS
Location and Fees
The Summer School took place in the beautiful Wivenhoe House Hotel at the University of Essex Campus.
Wivenhoe House, Wivenhoe Park, Colchester, Essex, CO4 3FA