Education

Alec Jenner (1927 – 2014)
Tim Kendall National Clinical Director for Mental Health, NHS England

Aside from pathfinder programmes such as Alec Jenner and Tim Kendall’s Masters course at Sheffield University (UK) on Philosophy, Society and Psychiatry in the 1980s, there were few training opportunities for philosophy and mental health until well into the 1990s.

Today there is a wide range of resources for philosophers interested to learn more about practical issues in mental health and for those with practical experience of mental health issues to learn more about philosophy.

NOTE

INPP announces new resources for education and training as these are brought to the attention of the website editor, and curates the Index of Educational Resources hosted on this page

If you are aware of a resource that is not included in the Index or find any difficulty accessing the resources shown, please contact the website editor using the link that follows

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Postgraduate Programmes

InstitutionCountryCourse NameDetails
University of Central LancashireUK Masters in Philosophy and Mental HealthBased on the Oxford Textbook of Philosophy and Psychiatry [LINK – replace the embedded one with the link to our free down-loadable copy in Resources], this course is a 3 year distance learning programme leading to an MA / PG Diploma / PG Certificate.

Modules are:


  • Core concepts in Philosophy of Mental Health
  • A Philosophical History of Psychopathology

  • Philosophy of Science and Mental Health
  • Values, Ethics and Mental Health
  • Philosophy of Mind and Mental Health
  • Introduction to Postgraduate Research
  • Dissertation

    It is also possible to study for PhDs in the philosophy of mental health at UCLAN. Please contact Professor Tim Thornton for further details.
University of PretoriaSouth Africa Masters (MPhil) in the Philosophy & Ethics of Mental Health Offered by The Division of Philosophy & Ethics of Mental Health at the University of Pretoria, this course is a 1-year full time or 2-year part time programme that may be followed through e-learning from remote places.
To find out more, visit the web page www.up.ac.za/pemh or contact Prof Werdie VanStaden by email.

NOTE
It is also possible to study for a PhD in The Division of Philosophy & Ethics of Mental Health at Pretoria. Please contact Prof Werdie VanStaden by email.
University of PlovdivBulgariaMasters in the Philosophy of Mental HealthCourses include:

  • general concepts of health and disease
  • history of psychology and psychopathology
  • phenomenological psychopathology
  • anthropology and mental health
  • values based medical practice
  • logic of the practice and psychopathology of common sense
  • philosophy of language and psychotherapy
  • philosophy of mind and psychiatry
  • epistemology & methodology
  • ethics and mental health
  • sociology and ethnicity of mental health
  • aesthetics
co-accredited by the Universities of Toulouse, Marseilles and Bordeaux FranceAn inter-university diploma (post-graduate course) This programme offers a 120h/1 year course, based on three seminars:

  1. history and epistemology of neuroscience in psychiatry,
  2. phenomenological psychopathology,
  3. research methodologies and interdisciplinarity.

    The programme is currently only in French.
Kings College LondonUKMasters (MA) in Philosophy of Medicine and Psychiatry Offered as an MA, this course provides opportunities for students to develop and demonstrate knowledge, understanding and skills in the Philosophy of Medicine and Psychiatry as well as studying other fascinating areas of philosophy, selected from a broad range of modules and covering all areas of the subject.

Geared to philosophy graduates, medical and other graduates, the course introduces them to key concepts, arguments, texts and techniques in the Philosophy of Medicine and Psychiatry
University of BirminghamUKMSc in Philosophy, Mental Health, and Psychology MSc in Philosophy, Mental Health, and Psychology

How can we think about mental health? Are psychological properties reducible to neural properties? What can both philosophy and psychology bring to our understanding of mental health?

On this unique interdisciplinary programme you will explore philosophical and psychological approaches to the mind and mental health.

You will have the opportunity to learn from experts from across the Department of Philosophy, and the School of Psychology drawing on the world-leading research environments in research centres such as the Institute for Mental Health and the Centre for Human Brain Health. You will pursue original research drawing from a wide range of potential topics supervised by experts in these areas. You will take modules from across all three disciplines, but have the choice on which area you would like to specialise in.

This programme is aimed at graduates with a background in philosophy, psychology, linguistics, neuroscience, theology or sociology. Graduates from a range of other backgrounds are strongly encouraged to apply and will be considered on a case by case basis. It can also be used as a route into PhD research.
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Short Courses and Summer Schools

InstitutionCountryCourse NameDetails
Center for Subjectivity Research DenmarkCopenhagen Summer School in Phenomenology and Philosophy of Mind The Copenhagen Summer School in Phenomenology and Philosophy of Mind is an annual event organized by the Center for Subjectivity Research and co-funded by the PhD School at the Faculty of Humanities, University of Copenhagen. The course typically attracts around 100 students from all over the world.
Heidelberg UniversityGermanyCourses run by the interdisciplinary working group Phenomenological Psychopathology and PsychotherapyThe interdisciplinary working group “Phenomenological Psychopathology and Psychotherapy” led by Thomas Fuchs, explores the underlying structures of subjective experience and their alternations within mental illnesses using both theoretical as well as empirical methodologies. Psychologists, philosophers and psychologists work together on common issues such as changes in self-experience, in corporeality and in intersubjectivity within mental illnesses.
Among many other teaching and research activities the Group offers

• Ongoing doctoral seminars in “Phenomenology and Psychopathology”
• An annual Graduate Course in “Phenomenology and Psychopathology
The Royal Society of MedicineUKFrom the Patient’s Point of View: Phenomenological Psychopathology in Clinical Practice Organised by Professor George Ikkos and Giovanni Stanghellini, this is the first RSM Psychiatry Section intensive 3 day course on phenomenological psychopathology and the therapeutic interview in commonly encountered psychiatric conditions and severe psychopathology.
University of OxfordUKPhilosophy and Psychiatry: Mind, Values and Mental HealthOxford Philosophy Faculty in partnership with The Department for Continuing Education offers a biennial Summer School on Philosophy and Psychiatry: Mind, Values and Mental Health
The Summer School takes the form of a three-day taught course for participants followed by a one-day conference that is open to a wider audience
Keynote Speakers and Topics for the 2019 Conference were:
• Louis Sass on Three Dangers: Phenomenological Reflections on the Psychotherapy of Psychosis
• Shaun Gallagher on The 4As (Affect, Agency, Autonomy, Affordance), Self and Psychopathology
• Gwen Adshead on Psychotherapy with Offenders: Feeling Better or Behaving Better?
• Thomas Fuchs on Delusion and intersubjectivity. An (inter)enactive account
The Summer School includes a wide range of speakers but is led by members of the Oxford Faculty of Philosophy:
• Dan Zahavi
• Edward Harcourt
• Anita Avramides
• Bill Fulford
University of OxfordUKPhilosophy, Psychiatry and Mental Health Led by Guy Kahane, Julian Savulescu and Doug McConnell (Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics), this short course explores a selection of conceptual and ethical issues in mental health through a series of case studies covering such areas as delusion and hallucination, personality disorder, disorders of mood, dissociative disorders, obsession, addiction and dementia.
The module draws throughout on recent interdisciplinary work in philosophy and psychiatry providing a three-way bridge between, respectively, conceptual challenges, advances in the cognitive and neurosciences, and innovations in policy and practice in mental health.
The course is a component of an MSt in Practical Ethics run jointly by the Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics and the Department for Continuing Education, University of Oxford
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Specialist Areas

InstitutionCountryCourse NameDetails
University of YorkUK Module in Phenomenology & Psychiatry University of Your (UK), explores the mutually illuminating interaction between phenomenological This 1-term 20-credit Masters-level module offered by the Department of Philosophy, philosophy and psychiatry, focusing on both historical and contemporary work.
Santa Casa de São Paulo School of Medical Sciences, BrazilBrazil
The Postgraduate Program on Phenomenological Psychopathology (400hs program)
The Postgraduate Program on Psychopathology and Public Health (490 hours program)
Guilherme Messas runs two postgraduate programmes in phenomenology at the Santa Casa de São Paulo School of Medical Sciences in Brazil . Both programmes are taught in Portuguese
King’s College London UKMasters (MSc) in Mental Health, Ethics and Law Offered as a 1-year full time or 2-year part time MSc, this course provides an integrated, strongly interdisciplinary, education in mental health, ethics and law, supported by two internationally recognised centres of excellence, the UK’s first Centre of Medical Law and Ethics and Europe’s largest centre for research and teaching in psychiatry, psychology and neuroscience (the Institute of Psychology, Psychiatry and Neuroscience, also in London).
University of EssexUKMasters in the Philosophy of Psychoanalysis Run jointly by the Philosophy Department and the Centre for Psychoanalytic Studies, University of Essex, the core of this MA is a Joint Graduate Seminar in which contemporary issues are explored from both a philosophical and a psychoanalytical perspective. They have a special focus on philosophical issues in psychoanalysis (see also Index of Researchers
University College LondonUKMSc in Theoretical Psychoanalytic Studies This MSc, which is run by the Psychoanalysis Unit at UCL (University College, London) in collaboration with the British Psycho-Analytical Society, includes philosophical aspects. It offers a one-year full-time (or up to five years flexible/modular) course covering historical and current theoretical developments worldwide.
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