“This is a class with a difference…” – The New York Times
The Maudsley Philosophy Group Trust is based at the Maudsley, London UK. It began in 2002 but continues a tradition of blending psychiatry and philosophy that dates back to the founders of the Maudsley Hospital and the Institute of Psychiatry.
The group started as a reading group inspired by the idea that psychiatry has a tendency to become “too clinical, too biological and too psychological” and requires a broad cultural and philosophical frame of reference to keep balance and maintain a full view of the human person.
Interests include the phenomenological basis of psychopathology and the different models of mental disorder prevalent in psychiatry (e.g. biological, psychological, sociological). The group has organised key conferences on psychiatry and philosophy, produced a unique Reader on phenomenological psychiatry, developed a questionnaire to probe the models of mental disorder that clinicians and other groups believe (and don’t believe). More recently, it has developed an interest in the theme of power and personality.
The Trust organises regular seminars and lectures that bring together clinicians and researchers with philosophers, public intellectuals, and policy makers.
It also supports reading groups for the next generation of psychiatrists.
We drive at innovation and exchange in the areas of psychiatry and philosophy.
The Maudsley Philosophy Group is a registered charity in England and Wales (No 1120868). Donations to the Trust are welcomed – please contact us for details.
Trustees
Lisa Conlan
Lisa trained in medicine at University College London and has a M.Sc in Philosophy of Mental Disorder from Kings College London. She is a Consultant Psychiatrist at the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust where she set up Reading the Mind (a non-fiction book group for psychiatrists) and the Maudsley Phenomenology Reading Group aimed at junior doctors training in psychiatry.
Dr Quinton Deeley (Chair)
Dr Deeley is an honorary consultant psychiatrist in the South London and Maudsley Trust National Autism Unit, Adult ADHD Service, and Behavioural Genetics and Autism Assessment Clinic.
Dr Robert Harland
Robert completed his psychiatric training at the Maudsley Hospital and is now a consultant psychiatrist at the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust and Clinical Director of the Psychosis Clinical Academic Group.
Dr Gareth Owen
Gareth studied philosophy and physics and then medicine at the University of London. He subsequently trained in clinical neuroscience at Addenbrooke’s Hospital Cambridge before starting clinical and research training in psychiatry at the Maudsley Hospital and Institute of Psychiatry in 2002. Since then his research has addressed problems at the intersection of mental health and justice. Gareth is Reader at King’s College London and runs the Mental Health, Ethics and Law Research Group in the Department of Psychological Medicine and also works as a consultant psychiatrist.
Donors
Abbott Laboratories
Lord David Alliance
Lord David Owen and Mrs Deborah Owen
Professor George Szmukler
The Institute of Social Psychiatry
The Wellcome Trust