Conférence sur place et en ligne

8 octobre 2025, 15h à 17h.

A-3316, pavillon Hubert-Aquin 3e étage à l'UQAM (400 rue Sainte-Catherine Est)

ZOOM : https://uqam.zoom.us/j/82162046084

Stigma as an Actant in the History of Psychiatric Disorder 

(résumé)

The slogan "end the stigma" has become pervasive in mental health contexts. It makes a straightforward suggestion: if we can counter social prejudices about mental illness then we will be able to address mental illness more effectively and humanely. It is reminiscent of other medical-social movements such as the ones to reduce the stigma of breast cancer, beginning in the 1970s with Betty Ford's openness about her own diagnosis and treatment and continuing with the work of advocacy groups such as Susan G. Komen and the National Breast Cancer Coalition to successfully fund and implement programs for early detection and intervention.I signed on to "end the stigma" for mental illness a long time ago. However, in learning more about the history of mental health stigma, both in general and for particular conditions, I have found that stigma is a slippery beast that is often imperfectly managed by efforts that implicitly or unconsciously result in further stigmatization of some or all mental health conditions. It is not easy, and may not even be possible, to "end the stigma." In addition, I have found that stigmatizing judgments run so deep that they have influenced professional judgments about the scope of psychiatric disorder and about the categories of psychiatric disorder. Stigma is not added to some neutral medical categories by a prejudiced society; rather, stigma was involved in making the categories themselves.

AVEC MIRIAM SOLOMON

Miriam Solomon est professeure émérite de philosophie à l'Université Temple, où elle prend sa retraite en juin 2024 tout en demeurant active dans la recherche et la supervision d'étudiants diplômés. Elle est l'auteure de Social Empiricism (MIT Press, 2001) et Making Medical Knowledge (Oxford University Press, 2015), ainsi que coéditrice du Routledge Companion to Philosophy of Medicine(2017). Ses recherches portent principalement sur la philosophie des sciences, la philosophie de la médecine et de la psychiatrie, l'épistémologie sociale et les questions de genre en sciences. Elle siège notamment au comité éditorial de la revue Philosophy of Science et participe activement à de nombreuses organisations académiques, dont le Social Epistemology Network et l'Association for the Advancement of Philosophy and Psychiatry.  

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