The Extended Mind and Philosophy of Psychiatry

Talks and a panel discussion

Wednesday, August 29, 2018, from 18.00 to 20.00.

Tiedekulma / Tankehörnan / Think Corner
1st Floor, Yliopistonkatu 4 / Universitetsgatan 4
Helsingin yliopisto / Helsingfors universitet / University of Helsinki
www.tiedekulma.fi

 

But she said, sitting on the bus going up Shaftesbury Avenue, she felt herself everywhere; not “here, here, here”; and she tapped the back of the seat; but everywhere. She waved her hand, going up Shaftesbury Avenue. She was all that.
–Virginia Woolf, Mrs Dalloway

When mental disorders are discussed in our contemporary society, they are often located inside people, especially in our heads. Are mental disorders diseases of the brain, or are they better understood as extended outside the borders of the skin and skull?

According to the Extended Mind hypothesis in philosophy of mind and cognitive sciences, cognition is shaped by external elements, such as tools, social structures, and cultural practices. It suggests that the processes that shape cognition cannot be traced back to a singular location, and it also emphasizes the embodied and affective aspects of the mind.

What does the understanding of the mind as extended mean for psychiatry, for diagnosis and treatment and for our cultural conceptions of mental disorders? If the mind is not solely in the head, does that mean that its dysfunctions aren’t either?

Chair: Sanna Tirkkonen, University of Helsinki

Keynote:
Anna Ciaunica, Institute of Philosophy Porto & Research Department of Clinical, Educational and Health Psychology, University College London: The (Dis)Embodied Self

Comments:
Pii Telakivi, University of Helsinki: The 4E’s – Enactive, Embodied, Embedded and Extended
Ferdinand Garoff, University of Helsinki: ‘Home’ as an Example of Extended Psychiatry
Tuomas Vesterinen, University of Helsinki: Questions of Philosophy of Psychiatry
Anna Ovaska, University of Helsinki: The Extended Mind and Literature

Free entry, no registration

See also: www.facebook.com/events/1040467606131966/

Welcome!