“New approaches to philosophy of mind and psychiatry” is a workshop organized by drd. Sandra Branzaru, drd. Cătălin Teoharie, Doctoral School of Philosophy, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Bucharest, in collaboration with Alexandra Ciubotaru (resident in Psychiatry, Alexandru Obregia Psychiatry Hospital), Alexandru Bîcu and Olguţa Barizi (alumni Cognitive Science BA, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Science). Chairs: David Urzică (Cognitive Science, BA, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Science, UB), Elena Luiza Costache (Cognitive Science, BA, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Science, UB), Horeanu Ionuţ (Doctoral School of Philosophy, Faculty of Philosophy, UB)

The event will take place at the Faculty of Philosophy, University of Bucharest, March 28th-29th 2026.

This workshop aims to explore, but it is not limited to, a clarification of psychiatric concepts, especially in light of new approaches in philosophy of mind, such as embodied, situated, extended and enactive cognition, but also predictive processing. We will also explore pluralistic approaches to the nature of psychiatry as a science, as well as ontological, explanatory, and value pluralism. Recent developments in bioethics and applied ethics also call for philosophical reflection in regards to equal access to mental healthcare, the autonomy and agency of patients, and decision-making with respect to potential treatment schemas. AI (artificial intelligence) has also been integrated in mental healthcare, so we are interested in understanding the risks and benefits of their use. On the one hand, they might aid or enhance diagnostic precision, personalized treatment and care options, pre-evaluation of treatment efficacy. On the other hand, this raises challenges such as privacy of highly sensitive patient data or regulatory, policy and standardization issues that arise from the lack of regulation of mental health uses of AI.

Programme

Chairs: David Urzică (Cognitive Science, BA, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Science, UB), Elena Luiza Costache (Cognitive Science, BA, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Science, UB), Horeanu Ionuţ (Doctoral School of Philosophy, Faculty of Philosophy, UB)

Saturday, March 28th

14:15 Opening

14:30 Raluca Rusu (Doctoral School of Philosophy, Faculty of Philosophy, UB) “The Ineffable and the Clinical: Psychedelics at the Intersection of Philosophy of Mind and Psychiatry “

15:00 Cătălin Teoharie, Sandra Brânzaru (Doctoral School of Philosophy, Faculty of Philosophy, UB) “A new view of the Dark Room problem under the Free Energy Principle framework”

15:30 Raluca Popescu (MA Mind the brain, Faculty of Philosophy, UB) “The Narrative Practice Hypothesis and Theory-Theory in Psychiatry: A Comparative Analysis”

16:00 Olguţa Barizi, Alexandru Bicu (alumni Cognitive Science, BA, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Science, UB) “Social anxiety disorder and interoceptive trait prediction error: An account from the free energy principle”

16:30 - 16:45 Break

16:45 - 17:15 Roundtable (moderated by David Urzică, Elena Luiza Costache)

Sunday, March 29th

14:30 Alexandra Ciubotaru (resident in Psychiatry, Alexandru Obregia Psychiatry Hospital) “Language as a Window into Cognition: Rethinking the Fundamentals of Psychometric Testing in the Age of LLMs”

15:00 Maria Ofileanu (MA Mind the brain, Faculty of Philosophy, UB) - “Theory-theory vs. Narrative Practice Hypothesis, round 1, FIGHT! Which approach could result in more beneficial psychiatric practices for autistic people?”

15:30 Daniela Nica (Doctoral School of Philosophy, Faculty of Philosophy, UB) - “Variation thinking in psychiatry- Depression as a case-study”

Keynote :16:00- 16:45 Ioan Muntean (University of Texas Rio Grande Valley) "Trust, decision-making, and computation in mental care: the “distributed wide reflective equilibrium” approach"

Break 16:45-17:00

17:00 Rareş Iosifescu (Cognitive Science, BA, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Science, UB) "I want peace not drama lol": Can Dramatherapy be Effective in Psychopathology?

17:30 Irina Alexe (Cognitive Science, BA, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Science) “Theoretical models of dissociative experiences: a 4E approach to the trauma-based model”

18:00 Gina Paraschiv (Cognitive Science, BA, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Science, UB) Free your brain: Large Language Models and enactive psychiatry