Mental Illness, Social Inequality and Recovery: What does Science have to Offer?

Glyndŵr University Inaugural Professorial Lecture Series 2010/11

Professor Robert Poole
Professor of Mental Health, Glyndŵr University

The role of science in mental health treatment is under attack, on the one side by professionals who want to introduce a post-modernist perspective into practice (so called ‘post-psychiatry’), and on the other side by those who would integrate spirituality or religion into treatment.

In this lecture, Professor Poole will examine the role of science within his profession of psychiatry. With focus on one particular thread in his current clinical research, the extent to which social deprivation can be regarded as a specific cause of mental illness, he will explore issues of reductionism and biological determinism as scientific dilemmas, sharpened by a dependency on commercial funding of research. He will argue that empiricism and science are important in overcoming the effects of social inequality and injustice, and that they are the essential tools if recovery is to become the expected outcome for everyone who suffers from a mental illness.

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