Guest lecture by Professor Nikolas Rose, 'Mental Illness: Five Hard questions'

Lecture delivered on 15 May 2013.

Professor Rose is one of our leading contemporary social scientists. Currently he is Professor of Sociology and Head of the Department of Social Science, Health and Medicine at King's College, London. In the talk, Professor Rose characterises the 'territory' of mental illness today by posing five hard questions that seem to represent genuine empirical, conceptual, professional and ethical dilemmas. The questions are: Is there an 'epidemic' of mental disorder? Does the path to understanding mental disorder lie through the brain? What is the role of diagnosis and of diagnostic manuals? Should we seek early identification of those at risk of future mental pathology? What is the place of patients, users, survivors, consumers in the mental health system?