To mark the launch of Being Ill: On Sickness, Care, and Abandonment (published by Reaktion Books in October 2024), the Freud Museum is delighted to host a conversation between authors Neil Vickers and Derek Bolton. The discussion will be chaired by David Bell.
This event will explore the profound impact of major illness on personal identity and relationships, offering an original perspective that draws on neuroscience, psychology, and psychoanalysis.
Vickers and Bolton will discuss how a sense of connectedness and group belonging can improve care and strengthen societal resilience in the face of illness. This discussion promises to be a significant contribution to the medical humanities and will appeal to anyone interested in the psychological and social dimensions of illness.
SPEAKERS
Neil Vickers is Professor of English Literature and the Health Humanities at King’s College London. He has had a distinguished career in epidemiology and has published widely on literature and medical subjects. He is the author of Coleridge and the Doctors (2004).
Derek Bolton is Emeritus Professor of Philosophy and Psychopathology at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King’s College London. He has authored several influential books, including What Is Mental Disorder? (2008) and The Biopsychosocial Model of Health and Disease (with Grant Gillett, 2019).
David Bell is a training analyst of the British Psychoanalytical Society who served as its President from 2010 to 2012, David Bell is a Consultant Psychiatrist in the Adult Department at the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust, where he was Director of Postgraduate Training for many years and leads a specialist service (the Fitzjohns Unit) for the treatment of patients with enduring and complex problems. He was the 2012-13 Professorial Fellow at Birkbeck College and is an Honorary Senior Lecturer at University College London.
Tickets include a welcome drink and book signing.
The event will be held on the first floor of the Museum. Unfortunately the Freud Museum does not have step-free access at this time.
Freud Museum Members and Patrons receive 20% off the standard ticket price on all events, courses, conferences and On Demand programming.
Tickets are NON-REFUNDABLE.
The purpose of this event is to raise funds for the Freud Museum London, which receives no regular public income.
