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Delusions at the Intersection, 26th -27th February 2024

Interdisciplinary Expansion Sandpit Event: Delusions at the Intersection

Organisers: Rosa Ritunnano and Jeanette Littlemore from University of Birmingham; Anke Maatz and Julian Hofman from University of Zürich

Presenters at the "Delusions at the Intersection" Interdisciplinary Expansion Sandpit Event

The workshop took place at the University Hospital of Psychiatry Zurich, the formerly so-called “Burghölzli”, and directly linked to the work of one of his first directors, Eugen Bleuler (1998-1927): Bleuler is best known for his introduction of "schizophrenia" which marks a turn to psychopathology in the history of psychiatric nosology. Whilst delusions play only a subordinate role on his account of "schizophrenia", Bleuler's work served this workshop as inspiration for an approach that is marked by methodological pluralism and, importantly, allows a place for personal experience. Honouring his legacy, researchers and lived experience experts from a variety of theoretical and methodological backgrounds and career stages, all engaged in a truly interdisciplinary event that spanned several areas, including work in cognitive linguistics and conversation analysis, philosophy of language, anthropology, disability and mad studies, alongside the psy-disciplines. 

Many common themes emerged over the two days, pointing to areas in need of further interdisciplinary expansion and phenomenological engagement: the ‘messiness’ of psychotic experience, the entanglement of delusions and hallucinations, the role of affect and affective contagion in delusional experience, the need for creative methods and methodologies, the fluidity of boundaries between the literal and the metaphorical within delusory worlds. Going beyond traditional philosophical questions (such as those asking what type of mental state underlies reports regarded as ‘delusional’), the workshop highlighted the need for phenomenological enquiry to challenge some of its own blind spots and preserve complexity by appealing to multiple perspectives. One way to do this is to start by looking at how delusions ‘manifest’ in language, and exploring what delusions ‘do’ in a person’s lived world and personal narrative. The sandpit was only the first step in the development of an Interdisciplinary Network for Delusion Research.

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