About this course

Learning Objectives

• Analyze the limitations of traditional neuropsychiatric approaches to Thought Insertion (TI) by explaining how they decontextualize the experience and neglect its embodied and intersubjective dimensions.
• Evaluate the philosophical implications of Thought Insertion, specifically by citing how TI challenges the fundamental concepts of selfhood and the ownership of one's mental content.
• Apply patient-centered communication strategies to the discussion of TI by prioritizing the subjective reality of the patient's experience and fostering trust, thereby mitigating the risk of epistemic injustice.

Learning Levels

• Beginner
• Intermediate
• Advanced

Course Instructor(s)

• 

  Clara S. Humpston, PhD

  Lecturer in Mental Health, Department of Psychology, University of York

  With a background in both psychopharmacology and psychiatric research methods, Clara Humpston was awarded her PhD on the cognitive neuropsychiatry of schizotypy and first episode psychosis in Professor David Linden’s lab from Cardiff University in February 2018, focusing on predictive processing and source monitoring frameworks. She began her first postdoctoral position in 2017 at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King’s College London working on chronotherapeutics for the rapid treatment of depression, before taking up a post of Research Fellow at the Institute of Mental Health, University of Birmingham in 2019. She joined the Department of Psychology as a Lecturer in Mental Health at the University of York in April 2022.

• 

  Matthew R. Broome, PhD

  Professor

  Matthew Broome is Chair in Psychiatry and Youth Mental Health, Director of the Institute for Mental Health and Director of The Midlands Translational Centre, Mental Health Mission at the University of Birmingham; Distinguished Research Fellow, Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics, University of Oxford; and Visiting Professor, Suor Orsola Benicasa University of Naples. In the NHS, Matthew is Honorary Consultant Psychiatrist to East Birmingham Early Intervention in Psychosis Team, Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust

  Matthew studied Pharmacology and Medicine at the University of Birmingham and trained in psychiatry at the Maudsley Hospital, Bethlem Royal Hospital, and the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery. Matthew has a PhD in Psychiatry from the Institute of Psychiatry, University of London and in Philosophy from the University of Warwick.

  Matthew’s research interests include youth mental health, the prodromal phase of psychosis, delusion formation, mood instability, neurodevelopmental disorders, functional neuroimaging, interdisciplinary methods, mental health humanities, and the philosophy of psychiatry. His research is funded by the Wellcome Trust, NIH, MRC, NIHR, EU and the Wolfson Foundation.

• 

  Pablo López-Silva, PhD

  Professor of Psychology, School of Psychology, Faculty of Social Sciences, Universidad de Valparaíso, Chile

  Pablo López-Silva is Professor of Psychology (School of Psychology, Faculty of Social Sciences), and Research Professor (Faculty of Medicine and Institute of Philosophy) at the Universidad de Valparaíso, Chile. After earning undergraduate and professional degrees in psychology in Chile, he completed an MRes and a PhD in Philosophy at the University of Manchester, UK. Currently, he is also a Young Research Fellow at the Millennium Institute for Research in Depression and Personality (MIDAP-Chile), Main Researcher at the Valparaíso Institute for Complex Systems, Researcher at the Universidad de Valparaíso Research Centre for Cognition and Language Development, and International Partner at the Collaborating Centre for Values-Based Practice in Health and Social Care at St Catherine’s College, University of Oxford, UK.

Disclosure

References

• Bortolotti, L., & Broome, M. (2009). A role for ownership and authorship in the analysis of thought insertion. Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences, 8(2), 205-224. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11097-008-9109-z
• Broeker, M. D., & Broome, M. (2024). Delusions in psychosis. In The Routledge Handbook of Philosophy of Delusion (pp. 122-134). Routledge.
• Broome, M. R. (2024). Phenomenology, delusions and justice. World Psychiatry, 23(2), 239. doi:10.1002/wps.21202
• Spencer, L., Broome, M. R., & Stanghellini, G. (2025). The future of phenomenological psychopathology. Philosophical psychology, 38(1), 1-16. https://doi.org/10.1080/09515089.2024.2403881
• Spencer, L., & Broome, M. (2023). The epistemic harms of empathy in phenomenological psychopathology. Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences, 1-22. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11097-023-09930-1
• Humpston, C. S. (2023). Paradoxes in a prism: reflections on the omnipotent passivity and omniscient oblivion of schizophrenia. Philosophical Psychology, 36(8), 1507-1520. https://doi.org/10.1080/09515089.2022.2078187
• Humpston, C. S. (2022). Isolated by oneself: Ontologically impossible experiences in schizophrenia. Philosophy, Psychiatry, & Psychology, 29(1), 5–15. https://doi.org/10.1353/ppp.2022.0001
• Humpston, C.S., and Broome, M. R. (2016). The spectra of soundless voices and audible thoughts: Towards an integrative model of auditory verbal hallucinations and thought insertion. Review of Philosophy and Psychology, 7(3), 611-629. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13164-015-0232-9
• López-Silva, P. (2025). Thinking in schizophrenia and the social phenomenology of thought insertion. Philosophical Psychology, 38(1), 17-48. https://doi.org/10.1080/09515089.2024.2334720
• López-Silva, P. (2023). Minimal Biological Adaptiveness and the Phenomenology of Delusions in Schizophrenia. In The Philosophy and Psychology of Delusions (pp. 126-140). Routledge.
• López-Silva, P. (2018). Mapping the psychotic mind: A review on the subjective structure of thought insertion. Psychiatric Quarterly, 89(4), 957-968. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11126-018-9593-4