Colloque

Community Norms and Mental Illness

Ian Gold

Alessandra Miklaucic

Membre a labase

Ian Gold

Résumé de la communication

Behavioral and psychological norms loom large in the conceptualization and diagnosis of mental illness. Consider the DSM-IV characterization of delusions: “false belief[s] based on incorrect inference about external reality that is firmly sustained despite what almost everyone else believes and despite what constitutes incontrovertible and obvious proof or evidence to the contrary.” But who are the “everyone else” against which one’s beliefs are deemed to be normal or pathological? Until very recently, they were the people who lived in one’s physical locale, spoke the same language, shared the same culture. The advent of the new communication technologies, however, raises difficulties for this notion of community. If one spends a good deal of time interacting electronically with people who believe that the events of 9/11 were stage by the US government, or that they are regularly filmed by hidden cameras, do these beliefs count as paranoid despite failing (apparently) to satisfy the DSM criterion of divergence from community standards? In this paper, we explore some notions of community and the nature of the norms they support. We then consider what changing technology is doing to these notions and how these changes may affect psychiatry.

Résumé du colloque

Nous tiendrons notre assemblée générale annuelle en marge du colloque, mais également nous offrirons un cocktail et un buffet à nos invités, après l’assemblée générale en début de soirée lors de l’avant dernière journée. Nous décernerons également un prix pour la meilleure communication étudiante (1er et 2e prix), attribué lors de cette soirée.