Neurodiversity, Autism, ASD, and Other Categories in Psychiatry and Mental Health

CfA: We invite submissions of abstracts (~250-500 words) on any of the following or broadly related topics: What should we mean by “neurodiversity”? What is the relationship between the categories “neurodiversity,” “autism” and “ASD”? Why are these categories useful? What are their limitations? What do we know about the mechanisms, developmental trajectory, phenomenology, and social attitudes associated with “autism” or “neurodiversity” in different countries, communities, and times? What are the consequences of employing the category “neurodiversity,” “autism,” or “autism spectrum disorder” for self, social and scientific understanding, for stigma and inclusion, or for over- or under-medicalization and diagnosis? More generally, what should categories relevant for psychiatry and mental health look like? What should the roles of clinicians, psychiatrists, patients, family and friends, and the public be in working out valuable categories of mental illnesses and mental health? …

Who, Where, When, and How: We will explore these and related questions during a one-day Symposium. The Symposium will feature invited talks by Prof. Rachel Cooper (https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/ppr/people/rachel-cooper) and Dr. Sam Fellowes (http://www.samfellowes.com/), and a selected number of submitted talks. Organized in association with the Nederlandse Vereniging voor Wetenschapsfilosofie (NVWF) and supported by the Department of Philosophy at Tilburg University, the Symposium will take place at Mindlabs (https://www.mind-labs.eu/ Tilburg, The Netherlands) on Monday the 16th of December 2024. Participation is free and all are welcome, but registration is required.

• If you would like to propose a talk, please send an anonymized document (in pdf or doc format) containing the title and abstract (~250-500 words) for a 20-minute presentation to Matteo Colombo at [email protected] no later than Wednesday October 23rd 2024. As a subject line, indicate “Tilburg Phil Psych submission” and include your name and affiliation in the body of your email. We will notify authors of accepted contributions by early November 2024.
• If you would like to attend the Symposium, please send your registration to Matteo Colombo with subject line “Tilburg Phil Psych registration” by Sunday December the 1st 2024, indicating whether you would like to attend online or in person.

Inquiries about the symposium may be directed to either Matteo Colombo ([email protected]) or Hanne Jacobs ([email protected])