Histoire des psychothérapies

From Moral Treatment to Psychological Therapies
Histories of Psychotherapeutics from the York Retreat to the Present Day.

Centre for the History of Psychological Disciplines, UCL

11-13th October 2013

Whilst the history of psychiatry has become a well developed field of scholarship, there remain few examinations of psychotherapeutic treatments beyond histories of psychoanalytic approaches. This conference will bring together recent historical research on therapeutic treatments for mental distress and disorder, from the 18th century up to the present. It seeks to explore how such therapies were developed, their institutional and intellectual contexts, and the debates and controversies which may surround their use. ‘Psychotherapeutics’ is defined in its broadest terms, and is intended to include approaches that have been accepted by the medical or state establishments, as well as those practiced outside official institutional settings. Such modes of therapy could include moral treatment, mesmerism, mental healing, ‘talking’ therapies with a wide variety of theoretical bases, from psychoanalysis to cognitive therapy, as well as professional interventions such as those from psychiatric nursing, mental health social work, occupational therapy, play therapy and art therapy.

Topics may include, but are not limited to:

• The philosophical basis of therapies, such as existential, gestalt or behavioural approaches etc.

• Connections between the generation of therapeutic methods and their orginators’ biographies.

• Institutional, economic and political influences on the development of  therapeutic practice.

• Psychotherapeutics in the health services.

• The professionalization and regulation of psychotherapeutic practice.

• The relationship between psychotherapeutic methods and other fields of knowledge, e.g. pedagogy, criminology, the neurosciences etc.

• Debates and controversies about psychotherapeutic approaches.

• The development of specific approaches for different age groups.

• Psychotherapeutic concepts in popular culture and the media.

Abstracts of up to 500 words for 20 minute papers should be sent to Sarah Marks at sarah.marks@ucl.ac.uk. Proposals for themed panels with a maximum of four participants are also welcome. The deadline for individual papers and panel proposals is the 10th June 2013.

Participants will be notified whether their papers have been accepted by 20th June 2013.