For the next session of the Philosophy of Psychiatry Webinar, we will have the pleasure of welcoming Nancy Nyquist Potter (University of Louisville) for a lecture titled “Traumatic Lives and Trustworthy Psychiatrists.”

Abstract

The central virtue of psychiatrists and, indeed, of all of us, is to be trustworthy. Psychiatrists are trained in many facets of care for service users. But for some service users’ difficulties, psychiatrists may be inadequately prepared for working with those who experience living with trauma. Others may have the needed skills but are unsure of how to strengthen their skills for interpersonal and institutional improvement, thus decreasing distrust whether in the institution itself or in particular psychiatrists. This paper draws together the relationship between people living traumatic lives and what it might look like for psychiatrists to be trustworthy to them. I set out various definitions of trust and trustworthiness, distrust, and trauma, with commentary on strengths and weakness of those definitions. Next, I set out several different kinds of trauma, mindful of the overlaps and the problem of generating too many distinctions. The last section of the paper offers a number of epistemic and ethical qualities that trustworthy psychiatrists need in order to be trustworthy—and to be seen to be trustworthy—to those who live with the aftermath of trauma as well as those who live with everyday ongoing trauma in their lives.

The conference will be in English. Participation in the webinar is free, but registration is required on our website.

Organized by Anne-Marie Gagné-Julien and Sarah Arnaud, for the Philosophy of Psychiatry Research Group.