Philosophical Perspectives on 'antisocial personality disorder'

Philosophical Perspectives on ‘antisocial personality disorder’

Tuesday January 20th : 2015 Friends Meeting House London, NW1

The diagnosis of ‘antisocial personality disorder’ arguably has a long and controversial history in various guises such as moral insanity, feeblemindedness and psychopathy. One of the important continuities between these has been the association with crime and other ‘antisocial’ behaviour. Throughout this history challenging philosophical questions have been raised:


* What implications does the identification of such disorders have for notions of individual responsibility and criminal culpability? Does the identification of such disorders absolve the individual of guilt, or imply a more indelible sense of ‘dangerousness’?

* Are such disorders understood as residing within individuals as a disease like lesion, or a state of being?

* Are they better understood as consistent aspects of the personality or identity, or as temporary states?

* Are such disorders better understood as not residing within individuals at all, but as disorders of social relationships?

We are very interested to hear from people who have a contribution to make to philosophical debate about ‘antisocial personality disorder’ and its various historical guises.

Confirmed Speakers:


• Dr Edward Harcourt (Fellow and Tutor in Philosophy , Keble College, Oxford)

• Dr Gwen Adshead (Locum Consultant Forensic Psychiatrist, formerly Forensic Psychotherapist at Broadmoor High Security Hospital )

The conference will be funded as part of an ESRC seminar series called ‘Cross Disciplinary Perspectives on ‘anti-social personality disorder’.( http://aspd-incontext.org/)

We will some funds available for transport costs for a number of speakers.

If you are interesting in contributing to this event please send 300 word abstract to Dr David W Jones: [email protected][email protected]>

Closing Date: 30th October 2014

On behalf of the organising committee:
Dr David Jones (University of East London); Dr Chris Scanlon (University of East London, South London and Maudsely Foundation Hospital Trust); Professor David Gadd, (Manchester University)