Professor Gareth Owen and the panelists discussed his new book “Psychiatry and Human Nature” at this MPG symposium (7 May 2026).
Psychiatry and Human Nature
The aim of this symposium was to generate conceptual discussion about whether psychiatry needs the idea of human nature and, if so, how it might foster that connection.
The concept of ‘human nature’ has become very unsettled in general intellectual life. Our era often self-identifies as a postmodern one, namely we reject any singular story or ‘grand narrative’ about who we are as human beings, leaving a multitude of perspectives. The postmodern view takes contested interpretations of ourselves to be our lot, negating the concept of any ‘nature’. However, our era also self-identifies as a biological one, meaning we accept an account of ourselves as a byproduct of evolutionary forces in which there is no essence or purpose that defines us other than those of the mechanisms of the natural world. These influential reflections on human nature may not be compatible, but they share the feature of being (sometimes intensely) sceptical about inherited notions of human nature. A question for psychiatry is how it can calibrate the normal and the pathological under the conditions of such unsettled views about human nature.
Programme
1. Welcome: Dr Quinton Deeley – Chair of the Maudsley Philosophy Group
2. Professor Gareth Owen started the discussion with a talk about his new book Psychiatry and Human Nature: Classic and Romantic Perspectives (Cambridge University Press).
3. Panel discussion. The panel included:
Professor Matthew Hotopf – Executive Dean, IoPPN, KCL
Professor Femi Oyebode – Professor of Psychiatry, University of Birmingham.
Dr Niki Kern– Clinical lead and Consultant Psychiatrist, SLaM NHS FT
4. General audience discussion
Symposium recording
The full symposium recording is available below.