In this webinar, Professor Stijn Vanheule will talk about his new book Why Psychosis Is Not So Crazy: A Road Map to Hope and Recovery for Families and Caregivers (Other Press, 2024). Starting from the observation that, in contemporary mental health care, psychotic experiences are mainly seen as a sign of mental illness that needs to be managed, he advocates that such a viewpoint is limited because it neglects the psychological meaning these experiences entail. Drawing from his psychoanalytic background, Vanheule will present a model in which psychosis is linked to language use and the existential challenges we are all confronted with. In his view, psychotic outbreaks occur when common patterns of making sense of reality fail, raising the question of which events triggered the crisis. Mental health care should help people recover from such confrontations. Adequate therapy and other modes of creative expression can help tackle these challenges in alternative ways.
Can't attend live? Don't worry! The webinar will be recorded and sent to all registrants.
Presenter Bio: Stijn Vanheule, PhD, is a professor of clinical psychology and psychoanalysis at Ghent University (Belgium), where he chairs the Department of Psychoanalysis. He has published extensively on psychosis and other mental health-related topics, as well as Lacanian psychoanalysis. He is also a practicing psychoanalyst in Belgium.
Register online: https://ispsus.app.neoncrm.com/nx/portal/neonevents/events#/events/9801
