BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 CALSCALE:GREGORIAN PRODID:UW-Madison-Physics-Events BEGIN:VEVENT SEQUENCE:0 UID:UW-Physics-Event-1270 DTSTART:20081014T170500Z DURATION:PT1H0M0S DTSTAMP:20260506T200042Z LAST-MODIFIED:20080908T173300Z LOCATION:4274 Chamberlin (Refreshments will be served) SUMMARY:A perspective on evolution and psychiatry\, Chaos & Complex Sy stems Seminar\, Russ Gardner\, UW Department of Psychiatry DESCRIPTION:This presentation summarizes key points in the troubled 20 th century history of psychiatry and its guiding paradigms. These incl ude\, for example\, a oddly restricted definition of the word "biology " - a definition that de facto includes cellular-molecular biology onl y. Psychiatric disorders presently appear out of the blue understood a s molecular in origin with corrections to be achieved with medications in short impersonal sessions. The specialty does not exhibit parallel s to other specialties such as pulmonology and orthopedics for which l ung and bone anatomies represent physical organs substrate to their re spective physiologies and rationalize their respective "pathophysiolog ies" that describe disease as deviation from how the body works normal ly.
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\nReasons stem from major opposing figures of the tw entieth century: (1) Freud who did present pathophysiologies but not b ased on a real nervous system - his writings did not mention the brain after 1900 despite his prior researcher and neurologist credentials. (2) "Biological" psychiatrists typified and led by Eli Robins who reac ted to the untested therapies that made claims based on authority and that eschewed data-gathering. But they threw out the pathophysiology b aby with the bathwater and suggested any "future" pathophysiologies wo uld primarily involve cellular-molecular foundations - without need of other levels of analysis\, an assumption that presently seems as with out foundation as Freud's neglect of an actual brain.
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\n Both traditions implied that the free-standing individual separable fr om other people suffices for their models. But although research shows psychotherapies of all kinds work effectively and that placebos accou nt for much variance in drug treatment\, these paradigmatic features p ersist in present day psychiatry\, augmented in part by corporate fina ncial factors. A psychiatric basic science with a focus on an evolved "social brain" with the physiological function of "relational neurobio logy" would help provide order for psychiatry's disorder. Social facto rs account for much larger human brain size compared\, for example\, t o chimpanzee brains (3x larger by weight) despite close genomic identi ty. An approach that dissects pathophysiological mechanisms includes c ommunicational states that transcend species combined with communicati onal features seemingly unique to humans.
\n URL:https://www.physics.wisc.edu/events/?id=1270 END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR