This seminar provides mental health professionals with crucial perspective for improving the therapeutic relationship. It emphasizes the need to avoid epistemic injustice by refraining from immediately dismissing a patient as an unreliable source of information. Attendees will learn a crucial perspective-taking tool: seeing the person as a rational agent attempting to make sense of the world, rather than viewing them only as a malfunctioning biological system. By exploring common, non-pathological differences in cognitive style that lead to quick conclusions or the search for intentional causes, the course encourages a more humanizing and empathetic approach focused on understanding the belief's functional value for the individual, rather than simply refuting its content.
About this course
In this seminar, Professor Lisa Bortolotti offers a critical philosophical examination of clinical delusions and deeply held conspiracy beliefs. Moving beyond the traditional view of these phenomena as purely pathological, the course challenges the assumption that they are automatically symptoms of disease or cognitive failure, arguing that there is no good reason to categorize them as inherently mental disorders. Instead, Professor Bortolotti defends the view that these are best understood as "identity beliefs" - firmly held, unshakeable narratives through which the individual attempts to make coherent sense of a complex world and justify their decisions within it.
