We are very proud to announce Janna Hasting’s “Mental Health Ontologies How We Talk About Mental Health, and Why it Matters in the Digital Age” as the first book that is published of the ‘Language, Discourse and Mental Health Series’ University of Exeter Press. https://www.exeterpress.co.uk/en-gb/Book/2095/Mental-Health-Ontologies.html
Click here to get it directly from Amazon
On Wednesday, 14 November, join us in the Project Room, 50 George Square, for a series of short talks centring on cultural representations of mental health as part of Student Wellbeing Week.
Marking a joint effort between several Schools and Support Services across the University, Facts and Fallacies aims to open up an honest discussion on mental health in a safe environment through six wide-ranging talks comprising neuroscience perspectives on mental wellbeing, complex mental illness in the media, BAME mental health in the UK, mental health representations in the Lothian Health Services Archive, and gendered aspects of mental health.
Staff and students from the Chaplaincy and Wellcomm Kings will be on hand throughout this event to support attendees and offer additional information regarding University of Edinburgh resources for mental wellbeing.
Tea and coffee will be shared on arrival from 11am to 11:10am.
Short talks chaired by Professor Jolyon Mitchell
This session will also conclude with an open discussion on the topics presented facilitated by two co-chairs offering both staff and student perspectives. We hope you’ll join us for what promises to be an insightful morning. Together, we hope to build deeper understandings of mental health in order to strengthen our community as a whole.
Book here for session 1 in the Project Room (11am-1pm).
Join us in Computing Lab 1.02 on the first floor of 50 George Square, for a Wikipedia editathon focused on improving the coverage of mental health online.
Have you ever wondered why the information in Wikipedia is extensive for some topics and scarce for others? On Wednesday, 14 November, the University’s Information Services team are hosting an edit-a-thon as part of Wellbeing Week. Full Wikipedia editing training will be given at the beginning of the workshop. Thereafter the afternoon’s editathon will focus on improving the quality of articles about all things related to mental health.
Working together with liaison librarians, archivists & academic colleagues we will provide training on how to edit and participate in an open knowledge community. Participants will be supported to develop articles covering areas which could stand to be improved.
Come along to learn about how Wikipedia works and contribute a greater understanding of mental health!
Book here to join the Wikipedia editing event from 1.30pm-5.30pm
Cinema and television have contributed greatly to public understanding and misunderstanding of mental health, emotion and psychological and psychiatric practices. In this panel discussion we will screen a number of clips from a range of films and programmes and invite panellists and the audience to reflect on the representations of mental health and illness. We will discuss the practical effect that such representations may have on the public perception of mental health and also explore the specific ways in which the moving image tries to show our apparently invisible inner worlds and emotional lives.
This event will be chaired by Dr. David Sorfa, Programme Director MSc Film Studies at the University of Edinburgh.
Invited panellists include:
While we will steer away from the more lurid and gruesome representations of mental distress, some may find the topics raised or scenes depicted upsetting. Please do check the BBFC descriptions of the material to be screened here: http://www.bbfc.co.uk
Short clips from the following films may be shown:
Book here to join session three in the Screening Room at 50 George Square from 6pm-7.30pm.
Affiliation: University of Chester
Dr Nikki Kiyimba is Senior Lecturer and Programme Leader for MSc in Therapeutic Practice for Psychological Trauma. Nikki is also a lecturer and supervisor on the DProf Counselling/Psychological Trauma. She has been working as a Clinical Psychologist within the NHS for a number of years with a particular interest in working with clients with severe and enduring mental health problems, including personality disorder, psychosis, childhood trauma, dissociative disorders and PTSD. Nikki’s main interest is in qualitative research, particularly using discursive approaches to investigate therapeutic interactions.
Email: n.kiyimba@chester.ac.uk
Affiliation: The University of Queensland Australia
Dr Guy Ramsay’s current research interests include discourse analysis and narrative analysis in mental illness and related disorders in China and the Chinese diaspora.
Email: guy.ramsay@up.edu.au
Editors: Dr. Laura A. Cariola (Lead Editor) (University of Edinburgh), Dr. Stefan Ecks (University of Edinburgh), Dr. Billy Lee (University of Edinburgh) and Dr. Lisa Mikesell (Rutgers University).
The editors are very pleased to announce the new book series “Language, Discourse and Mental Health” published with the University of Exeter Press. This book series is a unique 
resource to further knowledge and understanding of mental health from a pluralistically informed linguistic perspective.
Using qualitative and quantitative approaches to language-based analysis, the empirical and theoretical contributions will provide a compelling insight on mental health from a range of perspectives and contexts, including psychotherapeutic communication, public presentations of mental health, literary accounts of lived experiences, and language features associated to specific mental health problems. This interdisciplinary book series will be an essential reference for students, researchers and practitioners in linguistics and communication, education, cognitive science, psychology, counselling and psychotherapy, special needs, medicine, nursing, and medical anthropology.
The book series is framed in terms of linguistic perspectives that differentiate between communication about mental health (i.e., language performance or use), and the communication of individuals with mental health problems (i.e., language competence or systems) in real-world and research contexts. Such a focus is anticipated to be captured through the following linguistic perspectives: sociolinguistics and sociocultural linguistics, cognitive linguistics and psycholinguistics, literary linguistics and stylistics. These can be applied through a range of language-based methodologies, including qualitative methods (e.g., discourse analysis, conversation analysis, interpretative phenomenological analysis, narrative analysis, thematic analysis), quantitative methods (e.g., corpus-based approaches, quantitative content analysis), and also experimental methods.
Consistent with an interdisciplinary framework that seeks to encourage and strengthen interdisciplinary research of mental health, the book series aims to encompass a wide repertoire different theoretical and philosophical views and a broad range of themes that add significant value to the field of mental health research, including:
The book series “Language, Discourse and Mental Health” is accepting book proposals for monographs and edited volumes. To discuss your book proposals, please contact the book series editors. Book series launch spring 2019.
Book proposal form: UEP – CE Book Proposal Form 2018 (see also http://www.exeterpress.co.uk/for-authors)
Dr. Laura A. Cariola (Lead Editor). Laura.Cariola@ed.ac.uk
Dr. Stefan Ecks. Stefan.Ecks@ed.ac.uk
Dr. Billy Lee. Billy.Lee@ed.ac.uk
Dr. Lisa Mikesell Mikesell.Lisa@gmail.com
Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is the most stigmatised and misunderstood, yet also 
one of the most common diagnosed personality disorders. Within the UK there is an estimated prevalence between 0.7% to 2% of BPD in the general population, with women, 0.6% twice as often diagnosed compared to men (0.3%) (NHS, 2011 factsheet), and in the U.S. between 0.5 % and 1.4 % (ten Have, Verheul, Kaasenbrood, van Dorseelaer, Tuithof, Kleinjan & de Graaf, 2016), and women are particularly over-represented in the forensic population with 20% of women fulfilling criteria for a BPD diagnosis (Singleton, Meltzer & Gatward, 1998; Sansone & Sansone, 2009). Despite the relatively common diagnosis of BPD in both inpatients and outpatients, the presentation of personality disorders in newspapers has received only very limited attention (Bowen, 2016; Goulden et al., 2011).
For my postdoctoral fellowship at the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities (University of Edinburgh), I am using in-depth corpus-assisted discourse analysis to explore how BPD is presented in UK newspapers. Special attention is given to identify how discourse types compare in their communication of stereotypes and prejudices that create and reinforce existing social stigma against individuals affected by BPD. To this end I have conducted a corpus-assisted qualitative frame analysis and a comparison of gender presentations. The slides of these analyses might be of interest to anyone with an interest in public presentations of mental health:
Presentations of Complex Mental Illness in the UK Press: A Corpus-Assisted Discourse Study.
Stolorow, R. D. (2018). Emotional disturbance, trauma, and authenticity: A 
phenomenological-contextualist psychoanalytic perspective. In Existential Medicine: Essays on Health and Illness, ed. K. Aho. London, UK: Rowman and Littlefield International, pp. 17-25.
Affiliation: University of Leicester
Michelle O’Reilly is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Leicester, working for the Greenwood Institute of Child Health and a Research Consultant for Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust. Her research activities focus on qualitative research in child mental health. For example, recent work has examined family therapy interactions and child mental health assessments. Michelle uses discourse analysis and conversation analysis to look at the social construction of mental health and to explore in detail the interactions between health professionals, parents and children. Her current project is a collection of approximately 42 hours of initial assessment data with 28 families attending their first appointment at the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS).
Email: Mjo14@le.ac.uk
Affiliation: University of Edinburgh
Martyn Pickersgill is Wellcome Trust Reader in Social Studies of Biomedicine. Based in Edinburgh Medical School, he conducts research in the social sciences and medical humanities. Martyn’s primary expertise is in the sociology of science, technology and medicine. To date, his research has focused primarily on the social, legal and ethical dimensions of biomedicine and the health professions. In particular, Martyn’s work has considered the sociologies of epigenetics, neuroscience, and mental health (supported through a range of funders, including the AHRC, ESRC, Leverhulme Trust, Newby Trust and Wellcome Trust).
Email: martyn.pickersgill@ed.ac.uk
Affiliation: University of Edinburgh
Stefan Ecks is co-founder of the Medical Anthropology Programme and a Senior Lecturer in Social Anthropology at Edinburgh University. He works on popular and plural professional concepts of body, health, and medicine in South Asia. Recent research explored the dynamics of the Indian pharmaceutical market, changing ideas of mental health in South Asia, pharmaceutical citizenship and access to health care for poorer people. He held visiting fellowships at the University of California at Berkeley, the Karl Jaspers Centre for Advanced Transcultural Studies at Heidelberg, and the Brocher Foundation at Geneva. He serves on the Editorial Boards of Medical Anthropology Anthropology & Medicine, and Medical Anthropology Quarterly, and as Area Editor for Anthropology, Archaeology, Health, and Ethics of Research for the International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences, 2nd Edition. Recent publications include the monograph (New York, 2013).
Email: Stefan.ecks@ed.ac.uk
Affiliation: University of Winchester
I am Reader in Media Psychology. After working for several years as a freelance music journalist for publications such as NME and the Independent, I studied Psychology at the University of Manchester and did a PhD with the University of Bristol looking at children’s spelling.
Wondering why there was so little research on the influence of the media on human behaviour, I began to develop the field of media psychology, with particular interest in the meanings that celebrity holds for audiences and for the celebrities themselves (Giles, 2000, 2002; Rockwell & Giles, 2009). Since then I have also explored the framing processes of news media (e.g. Giles & Shaw, 2009) and interaction in online mental health communities (Giles, 2006, 2014; Giles & Newbold, 2011, 2013). I have become increasingly interested in the way that social media have transformed the relationship between celebrities and audiences, and my current work looks at the way these developments challenge many of the assumptions of media and audience research (Giles, in prep).
I have an interest in psychological research methods generally, and I set up the journal Qualitative Research in Psychology (Taylor & Francis) with Brendan Gough and Martin Packer, whose first issue appeared in 2004. More recently I have been involved in an international network exploring the development of qualitative methods for studying online communication (MOOD – Microanalysis Of Online Data).
Email: David.Giles@winchester.ac.uk
Presented by Laura Cariola 
Abstract: This seminar reports on an in-depth corpus-assisted discourse analysis which explores how complex mental illnesses are presented in UK newspaper articles and medical case studies.
Special attention is given to identifying how discourse types compare in their communication of stereotypes and prejudices that create and reinforce existing social stigma against individuals affected by mental illness. I will outline an analysis of discursive constructions of borderline personality disorder in the UK Press that was based on 2,139 articles (with total count of 1,868,320 words) from the first mentioning of the term “borderline personality disorder” in 1990, until 2016. The results indicated that discourses were highly gendered with significantly more references to women than men, which is consistent with women being associated with borderline personality disorder (Becker, 1997). Women’s identities were often described through familial relationships, and women’s ownership status was restrained to simplistic existential themes.
Although early parental losses and trauma were reported in both women and men, there were also stereotypical gender-based differences associated to borderline personality disorder-diagnosed women, including reports of suicide and matricide as well as unresolved parental dependencies and conflicts. This alludes to parental conflicts as the cause of developing borderline personality disorder (Whalen et al., 2014). In relation to the home environment, women were also presented as passive victims of others’ coercive or destructive behaviour. In summary, the results of this semantic analysis showed that newspaper articles present stereotypical gender-based differences of borderline personality disorder, which reinforce public’s negative ideologies towards mental illness and women, and may also interfere with clinical perceptions.
social science”. This study “Presentations of borderline personality disorder in the UK press: A corpus-
assisted discourse analysis” has been presented on the 5th May 2017 as an invited speaker talk at the “Cross Disciplinary Perspectives on ‘anti-social personality disorder’: Antisocial Personality Disorder (ASPD) in Context” seminar series in London (Funded by the ESRC).
AbstractPeople with borderline personality disorder are exposed to stigma and discrimination towards mental illness, which impacts on their quality of life and recovery. Through the use of corpus-assisted discourse analysis, this presentation explores the discursive constructions of borderline personality disorder in the UK Press. The corpus included 2,139 articles (with total count of 1,868,320 words) from the first mentioning of the term “borderline personality disorder” in 1990, until 2016.
An initial analysis of frequent key words indicated that discourses were highly gendered with significantly more references to women than men – “her” (23,820), “she” (22,539) vs. “he” (11,382), “his” (9,691), which is consistent with women being associated with borderline personality disorder (Becker, 1997). Women’s identities were often described through familial relationship – “her mother” (871), “her daughter” (591), “her family” (567), “her son” (470) and “her father” (405) – and women’s ownership status was restrained to simplistic existential themes – “her life” (1,179), “her death” (860), “her problems” (124). Suicide was more frequently reported in relation to women – “took (119), take (94), end (32), taken (40) her life” or “jumped (56) to her death”, compared to men. Women are also more often reported of having killed their own mother – e.g., “killed (46), stabbing (39), killing (23) her mother”, whereas in men, mothers were implicitly or explicitly blamed – e.g., “his mother was jailed”, “his mother was an alcoholic”, “his mother was largely to blame”, which alludes to parental conflicts as the cause of developing borderline personality disorder (Whalen et al., 2014). Although early parental losses and trauma were reported in both women and men, women were found to have continuous parental dependencies and conflicts – “her parents did take her back into their home”, “was thrown out of her home by her own parents”. In relation to the immediate home environment, women were also passive victims of others’ coercive or destructive behaviour – e.g., “she was taken from her home”, ”she was raped on her way home”.
In summary, the results of this initial semantic analysis showed that newspaper articles present stereotypical gender-based differences of borderline personality disorder, which reinforce public’s negative ideologies towards mental illness and may also interfere with clinical perceptions.
The Institute for Advances Studies in the Humanities has offered Laura Cariola (that’s me) a postdoctoral research fellowship to explore “Presentations of Complex Mental Illness in Media and Medical Discourses using Corpus-Based Approaches to Discourse Analysis”. This project forms part of ongoing work that investigates mental health in public and medical discourses. Collaborators include academics across the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, such as clinical psychology, counselling and psychotherapy, anthropology, social work and medicine. The fellowship will also provide ample opportunities for knowledge exchange events and activities, research colloquia and a ‘Health Humanities’ invited speakers series.
The IASH was established in 1969 to promote interdisciplinary research in the arts, humanities and social sciences at the University of Edinburgh. It support innovative research and public engagement activities across the arts, humanities and social sciences through a range of interdisciplinary and international projects and programmes. The IASH provides an international, interdisciplinary and autonomous space for discussion and debate. Since its foundation more than 1000 scholars from 66 countries have held Institute fellowships; and up to 28 Fellows are in residence at any one time.
Communications and collaborations between mental health care users and user activists, family carers and friends, and mental health professionals and policy makers outside and beyond traditional clinical and pedagogic encounters are needed to strengthen a rights-based approach in the field of mental health and further civil society involvement. The Trialogue experience – an exercise in communication between service users, families and friends and mental health workers on equal footing – is indicative of our capacity for surviving and gaining from serious discussions of adverse issues as well as the great possibilities of cooperative efforts and coordinated action.
Link to original article in the book “The Stigma of Mental Illness – End of the Story?”
Affiliation: Birkbeck College
Laura Thompson is a Chartered Psychologist and Lecturer in Social Psychology at Birkbeck College. Her research is applied and ‘real-world’, focusing broadly on health, communication and socio-psychological approaches to occupational psychology. Taking an interdisciplinary approach, Laura draws across a range of methods, in particular conversation analysis, to help solve problems within the health sector, psychiatry and private or public companies. Her research aims to form the foundations for psychological treatments and interventions for individuals with health conditions, including schizophrenia and multiple sclerosis.
Affiliation : University of Edinburgh
Matthias Schwannauer graduated with first degrees in Philosophy and Psychology from the University of Marburg in 1994. In 1998 he completed his applied clinical psychology training at the University of Marburg with internships in Marburg, Berlin and Edinburgh. His first position as a qualified clinical psychologist was in the Adolescent Mental Health Services in Greater Glasgow NHS. He moved to NHS Lothian and the University of Edinburgh in January 2000. During this time he was able to carry out his PhD research into psychological interventions for bipolar disorders. This research involved the implementation of a randomised controlled trial of Cognitive Interpersonal Therapy and an investigation of the role of interpersonal and cognitive factors in mood regulation in bipolar disorders and the recovery process.
Since 2009 he is Head of Clinical & Health Psychology and Programme Director for the Doctorate in Clinical Psychology training programme at the University of Edinburgh. He is further a Consultant Clinical Psychologist in the Early Psychosis Support Service at CAMHS Lothian.