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LTT: Laura Kate Matthews
January 26 @ 12:00 pm - 1:30 pm EST
Title: Delusions as Cognitive-Affective Complexes
Abstract: Delusions are defined in the DSM-5 as “beliefs that are not amenable to change in light of conflicting evidence” (American Psychiatric Association, Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, 5th edition). In this talk, I offer two criticisms of this definition: 1) the concept is too broad in that everyday forms of self-deception and irrationality qualify as delusions and 2) the concept treats delusions as purely “cognitive” phenomena, which obfuscates the affective content of delusional thinking. I use these criticisms to motivate an enactive approach to delusion. I draw specifically on three features or commitments of enactivism: 1) the claim that cognition is essentially a process of adaptively navigating or “making sense” of one’s environment, including the social world, 2) the thesis that all cognition is inherently affective and 3) a dynamic systems approach to modeling delusional processes. The approach I sketch leads to the conclusion that delusions are cognitive-affective complexes which inhibit adaptive agency in a social context. If time allows, I will raise (and perhaps answer) the question of whether collective delusions (such as the belief that devil-worshipping, cannibalistic pedophiles are somehow running the world) are properly understood as delusions in the psychiatric sense.
Can’t make it in person? We are also streaming the talk through Zoom: https://pitt.zoom.us/j/96920232214
This talk will also be available live streamed on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrRp47ZMXD7NXO3a9Gyh2sg.
Details
- Date:
- January 26
- Time:
-
12:00 pm - 1:30 pm EST
- Event Categories:
- Lunchtime Talks, Lunchtime Talks 2023-24
Venue
- 1119 Cathedral of Learning
Organizer
- Center for Philosophy of Science
- Phone:
- 4126241050
- Email:
- pittcntr@pitt.edu
- View Organizer Website