Psychose – eine besondere Form der Dünnhäutigkeit, WiSe 22/23, 05

Dr. Thomas Bock in conversation with Prof. Dr. Dr. Andreas Heinz, Director of the Psychiatric Clinic at Charité Berlin, and Gwen Schulz, recovery companion and peer researcher at the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE). Our skin can become permeable, allowing inner dialogues to become external and real threats/information to affect us unfiltered. In psychoses, we often react more quickly not only to perceived but also to real dangers—almost like seismographs. What does this mean in light of the current threats to the world? At the same time, psychoses appear as a struggle for self-evidence and as a state in which sudden closeness and confinement can feel threatening. We then need someone to reassure us existentially; we need relationships that reflect us, support us, and simultaneously provide space for autonomy and a constructive therapeutic environment. How do we create a culture of relationships and treatment that generates less fear, promotes less stigma, and safeguards individuality without neglecting protection? Regardless of the setting—outpatient, inpatient, or home visits? What special significance do psychotherapy and recovery support have? The lectures of the 2022/23 winter semester are structured around specific disorders and address the fact that mental disorders are connected to profoundly human themes and conflicts, and that psychiatric diagnoses need to be reconsidered from a philosophical perspective. We must still be able to ask: What does depression have to do with shame, mania with escaping over-adaptation, and what do both have to do with a loss of time perception? Are people in psychoses primarily thin-skinned, so that inner dialogues become external and real events penetrate unfiltered? To what extent are anxieties vital, compulsions protective mechanisms, and addictions expressions of a desperate search; where are all three not only individually risky but also culturally formative? Who is disturbing whom when we speak of personality disorders? And do we still grasp that the underlying tensions between closeness and distance, autonomy and attachment, adaptation and resistance affect all people? What should support look like that is not only acceptable but also helps people reclaim their overwhelming experiences and strengthen their own coping strategies? The lecture dialogues give a voice to experts who think outside the box. Since its inception in 2000, the lecture series "Anthropological Psychiatry" has aimed to convey a humanistic understanding of mental illness, rather than reducing it to deviations from norms or the result of malfunctioning neurotransmitters. From this perspective, the necessary support also takes on a political dimension: Effective psychiatry requires sound social, housing, and local policies. This benefits everyone: What is good for mentally sensitive people is good mental health for everyone. Prevention requires political action. This lecture series is a collaboration between the University of Hamburg, the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Irre menschlich Hamburg e.V., and psychenet. About the speaker: Thomas Bock is a professor of clinical psychology and social psychiatry and a licensed psychological psychotherapist. In this online lecture series at the University of Hamburg, he invites various people to engage in dialogue. Each semester focuses on a specific theme.