We are pleased to offer Paul Thagard’s exciting book ‘The Brain and the Meaning of Life’ (Princeton University Press, 2012) for review. Expressions of interest from all angles of the medical humanities are welcome, but this book may be particularly well suited to those with an interest in philosophy. ‘Why Read more…
This review of the Exhaustion conference appeared on the fantastic Sleep Cultures blog: “On 25 October 2013, the University of Kent hosted a one-day interdisciplinary conference on exhaustion, organized by Anna Katharina Schaffner (Comparative Literature, Kent) and funded by the Wellcome Trust, that brought together scholars from the arts, medicine, Read more…
In this post, Lynne Friedli and Robert Stearn look at the role of psychological coercion, notably through the imposition of positive affect, in UK Government workfare programmes. There has been little or no debate about the recruitment of psychology/psychologists into monitoring, modifying and/or punishing people who claim social security benefits. This Read more…
Exhaustion Friday, 25 October, Cathedral Lodge, Canterbury Funded by the Wellcome Trust Organised by Anna Katharina Schaffner This interdisciplinary conference explores different medical, psychological and socio-political narratives on the origins of and cures for exhaustion. Experts from diverse disciplines (including psychiatrists, psychologists, social scientists, occupational health specialists, literary scholars and Read more…
Jenny Laws, post-doctoral research fellow at the Centre for Medical Humanities and Department of Geography, Durham University, reviews Paul Moloney, The Therapy Industry: The Irresistible Rise Of The Talking Cure, And Why It Doesn’t Work (London: Pluto Press, 2013). You can download a sample of the book here. Many thanks Read more…
David Herman writes: I feel very fortunate indeed to be joining the Department of English Studies at Durham University, which is chock full of brilliant scholars doing cutting-edge research and teaching. Equally pathbreaking work is being done under the auspices of Durham’s Centre for Medical Humanities, so I am doubly Read more…
“It’s a Pain Series” 6th December 2012, Stockton Arts Centre, 7.00-8.15pm Free entry and no booking required ‘EVERY MOVE YOU MAKE’- THE NORMAL PSYCHOLOGY OF CHRONIC PAIN Professor Stephen Morley, University of Leeds What’s this lecture about? What has psychology got to do with pain? I suspect that psychology is associated Read more…
Industriousness and Daydreaming: Cognitive Neuroscience’s Revaluation of Rest Dr Felicity Callard Senior Lecturer in Social Science for Medical Humanities, Durham University Friday 2nd of November, 3:30pm East Quadrangle Lecture Theatre, University of Glasgow Wine Reception to follow Abstract: How might human geography respond to the epistemological and ontological challenges posed Read more…
The CMH blog post “Medical humanities and cognitive neuroscience: trandisciplinary openings and endeavours” explored how several people at/associated with the Centre for Medical Humanities at Durham (CMH) are interested in grappling with how the medical humanities as a domain can productively engage not only with the interpretation of science that is being pursued Read more…
Charles Fernyhough – psychologist, writer, CMH affiliate and director of Hearing the Voice – is about to publish his second novel A Box Of Birds. A pacy thriller that also goes to the heart of scientific and philosophical debates about the nature of identity, memory and the self, A Box Read more…