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2018 Annual Uehiro Lectures in Practical Ethics (3/3): Illness and Attitude

Series
Uehiro Lectures: Practical solutions for ethical challenges
Lecture 3 of 3.Who we are depends in part on the social world in which we live. In these lectures I look at some consequences for three mental health problems, broadly construed: dementia, addiction, and psychosomatic illness.
Many illnesses have been thought—controversially—to have a psychosomatic component. How should we understand this? Sometimes a contrast is made between organic illness and mental illness: psychosomatic illnesses are the latter masquerading as the former. But if the mental is physical, and hence organic, this will not help. An alternative approach distinguishes between symptoms that are influenced by the patient’s attitudes, and those that are not; psychosomatic illnesses are marked by the former. Does this make the class too wide? Suppose I aggravate a bad back by refusing to exercise, falsely expecting the exercise to be dangerous. My symptoms are influenced by my attitude: are they therefore psychosomatic? I suggest that there is no sharp cut-off. I examine the role of attitudes in various illnesses, including addiction, focussing on the ways that social factors affect the relevant attitudes. I ask whether recognition of a continuum might help lessen the stigma that psychosomatic illness has tended to attract, and suggest other ways that treatment might be more attuned to these issues.

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Uehiro Lectures: Practical solutions for ethical challenges

2018 Annual Uehiro Lectures in Practical Ethics (2/3): Addiction, Desire and the Polluted Environment

Lecture 2 of 3. Who we are depends in part on the social world in which we live. In these lectures I look at some consequences for three mental health problems, broadly construed: dementia, addiction, and psychosomatic illness.
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Uehiro Lectures: Practical solutions for ethical challenges

2019 Annual Uehiro Lectures in Practical Ethics (1/3): What Has Gone Wrong? Populist politics and the mobilization of fear and resentment

Lies, propaganda, and fake news have hijacked political discourse, distracting the electorate from engaging with the global problems we face. These Uehiro Lectures suggest a pathway for democratic institutions to devise solutions to the problems we face.
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Episode Information

Series
Uehiro Lectures: Practical solutions for ethical challenges
People
Richard Holton
Keywords
pyschosomatic illness
organic illness
mental illness
patient attitudes
Department: Uehiro Oxford Institute
Date Added: 05/06/2018
Duration: 01:03:55

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