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Philosophy of Psychiatry Webinar | Winter 2023

"Concept creep and mental illness"

Nick Haslam (University of Melbourne)
Thursday, February 23, 2023
5:00-6:30 PM

Abstract:
The boundaries of psychiatric conditions and of ‘mental illness’ itself are widely acknowledged to be indistinct or even arbitrary. This recognition has grown with the rise of dimensional accounts of psychopathology and enduring concerns about diagnostic inflation. I will explore the shifting boundaries of mental illness from the standpoint of a research program on ‘concept creep,’ the progressive broadening of harm-related concepts. This program documents historical shifts in psychiatric concepts (both lay and professional), clarifies the cultural determinants of those shifts, and points to some of their implications for stigma, help-seeking, diagnosis, and the construction of illness-based identities. A concept creep framework sheds light on Hacking’s ‘looping effects’ – which I illustrate using the creeping concept of trauma – and on possible ironic effects of the rising public attention to mental illness.

The webinar is free but registration is required: