“Attention Grabbing Mental Illnesses” Mental disorder is defined by DSM-5 in terms of dysfunctional cognition, emotion, and behavior. We will argue that mental illnesses can be understood more fundamentally as failures to control attention. Some mental illnesses involve too much attention (and too little ability to adjust focus), whereas others involve too little attention (or … Continued

The Psychiatry, Philosophy, and Mental Health Program (PPMH) is based in the UNC Department of Psychiatry. PPMH has been functioning as an established reading and research group in the Department of Psychiatry for over a decade. We now have an expanded focus and mission. We aim to promote philosophical reflection and conversations that will enrich … Continued

Senior Investigator, Department of Bioethics at the N.I.H. Clinical Center https://irp.nih.gov/pi/scott-kim Please contact Dan Moseley, daniel_moseley@med.unc.edu, for registration information. These events are free and open to the public, but registration is required.

Professor and Section Head of Philosophy at M.I.T. http://www.ksetiya.net/ It is a cliché about philosophers that they ponder the meaning of life. Except they don’t. In recent philosophy, the question of life’s meaning is usually dismissed as nonsense; and for most earlier philosophers, the question doesn’t arise. In this talk, I’ll use the surprisingly recent … Continued

Associate Professor of Philosophy at Duke University https://scholars.duke.edu/person/jen.hawkins Our ability to look after ourselves and promote our own interests can be (and often is) undermined by mental disorder in ways not anticipated by current models of decision-making capacity.  Our standard ways of assessing capacity do not detect all the cases of incapacity they should. In this talk, I … Continued

The 2nd Annual UNC Philosophy and Psychiatry Conference is on the theme of “The Future of Human Nature: Transhumanism, Dehumanization and Virtual Worlds.” The conference is hosted by the Center for Bioethics, the Departments of Philosophy and Psychiatry, the UNC Philosophy and Psychiatry Research Group, and Carolina Seminars. The speakers for the virtual event are: … Continued