2005 Press Releases
Does Mental Illness Exist? - Last Lecture Series, 21 September
It does, according to Professor Patricia Casey of the Department of
Psychiatry at Dublin's Mater Hospital, but since the earliest times,
people have wondered about it and questioned its true nature.
As far back as the most celebrated physician of antiquity, Hippocrates,
mental illness was a matter of debate, and even the father of medicine
had to search for answers. He believed that while there was such a
condition, it was most likely caused by changes in the constituents of
the body. Later, in the Christian era, opinion was much more
sure-footed and the belief was that mental illness was the outward sign
of demonic possession or the work of the forces of evil - something
that deserved punishment or worse.
As part of UCC's continuing Science Lecture Series, titled this year
The Last Lecture Series to mark Cork's year as European Capital of
Culture, Professor Casey will deliver her lecture "Does Mental Illness
Exist?" on Wednesday, 21 September next at 8pm in Boole Lecture Theatre
4 at UCC. As well as charting the history of mental illness in medicine
throughout the ages, she will raise some highly pertinent questions
that have resonance for a growing segment of the Irish population as
the debate continues, perhaps more vehemently than ever before.
Professor Casey will describe how the seeds of the modern debate began
to be sown when the French philosopher, René Descartes, openly
discussed the proposition that mind and body were separate and that the
mind was where the soul resided. This led to a tension in the debate
that continued into the 20th century, regarding the relationship
between the soul and the brain. She will also describe how, after
the Enlightenment, the view began to take hold that mental
illness should be treated, not punished, and special institutions or
asylums, should be purpose-built for the mentally ill. The debate
can be traced through the intriguing development of modern psychiatry,
according to Professor Casey, right up to the present day with the
contention of the increasingly vocal anti-psychiatry movement that
patients who have been diagnosed with mental illness are being over
treated, "over therapized," and often, offered psychiatric
solutions for problems associated with everyday living.
Indeed, this is one of the difficult questions she will examine during
her lecture and it is one surrounded by controversy, especially for
those who believe that the chemical treatment of mental illness has
reached the point, almost, of patient abuse. Has psychiatry become too
all embracing? Are too many conditions - even bereavement, in America -
being claimed by psychiatrists as their rightful realm, and are you
mentally ill or simply unhappy with life when depression is diagnosed?
Professor Casey's lecture promises to enliven the current debate and to
illuminate it.
The lecture will be given in UCC's Boole Lecture Theatre 4 at 8 pm on
Wednesday, 21 September. As always, members of the public are invited
to attend and admission is free. The series is organised by Professor
William Reville of the Faculty of Science, UCC.
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