Aidan Wright, Professor of Psychology; Phil F. Jenkins Research Professor of Depression at the Eisenberg Family Depression Center
How Should We Think About Mental Illness?
Abstract: Since 1980, the official system for how we diagnose mental illness has remained largely unchanged. That’s close to 50 years without significant reconsideration of how we should conceptualize a major domain of medicine. In particular, the diagnostic system we currently have views mental disorders as something you either have or don’t, and that are distinct from each other. Research doesn’t support this view. This talk will introduce a modern perspective on the structure and organization of mental illness based on mathematical modeling of patterns of diagnoses and symptoms and show how it does a better job of explaining things like genetics, responses to treatments, and links to personality.
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