The labelling of mental disease: Towards responsible labelling practices

We have three types of objectives for this project:

First we have two objectives with respect to content:  We want to 1) conduct a multidisciplinary problem analysis of labelling practices concerning psychiatric and mental illnesses. In doing so we will focus on a) Mechanisms that feed into labelling practices, b) what happens when labels cross-over between settings, and c) Identification of problems that emerge in labelling practices (within a field) and after crossover of labels.  2) We want to come up with normative criteria on how to assess the desirability of labeling of mental disorders and labeling practices (see more in the section on ‘expected outcomes’ about the concepts and theories we are thinking about).

Secondly we aim to collaboratively write two papers. First of all, an academic paper, primarily aiming at the ethics (more particular bio-ethics) community (see the outline proposed under ‘expected outcomes’). Secondly why want to publish a popular publication in a Dutch newspaper or professional (medical) journal, to disseminate our findings to a wider audience.

Thirdly we want to build a community by establishing a team for future multidisciplinary collaboration on the ethical and societal aspects of neuroscience.  We are early career researchers who all have expressed a multidisciplinary interested doing their work. However, within our daily practices we are often confined to the disciplinary boundaries of our field. We would like to use this opportunity to move beyond our own fields and create a basis for future collaboration. The paper would be physical proof of how valuable such collaboration is.