Global Health & Humanities Book Talk Series No.5 "Seeking Commonality of Mental Suffering in a Divided World-Book Launch”

DATE: May 14, 2021 (Friday)
TIME: 2:00pm - 3:30pm (HK)

 seminar posterAbstract:

Seeking Commonality of Mental Suffering in a Divided World - Book launch of Mad by the Millions: Mental Disorders and the Early Years of the World Health Organization Entering the new millennium, the world is still far from unity. A disunified world is best demonstrated by the global inequality of COVID-19 testing, treatment, and vaccine roll-out. In Mad by the Millions: Mental Disorders and the Early Age of the World Health Organization, I use International Pilot Study of Schizophrenia (IPSS) and the re-writing process of ICD as a lens, to detail how the ideology of scientific internationalism, WHO institutional structure, peripheral inputs of experts from developing countries, and the progression of various technologies together facilitated the first international social psychiatry project. Half century ago, the common worldview among scientists and the development of information technology was critical in understanding mental disorders worldwide. However, the downside of relying on technology is that scientists had to iron out cultural variations of symptom manifestations and ignore narrative forms of mental suffering that carry meanings with them. This story is useful to consider the mounting promise of big data and artificial intelligence regarding their potential benefit and impairment.

Speaker: Dr. Harry Wu (HKU)
Moderator: Priscilla Song (HKU)

Co-hosted by:

  • Faculty of Arts (Centre for the Humanities and Medicine & Centre for the Study of Globalization and Culture)
  • Faculty of Medicine (Medical Ethics and Humanities Unit)

All are welcome, please register at https://hkuems1.hku.hk/hkuems/ec_hdetail.aspx?UEID=74739. The event will be conducted in hybrid mode. Physical attendance by invitation only. Zoom link will be sent the day before the event.

For enquiries, please feel free to contact Miss Karina Chan by email at khychan4@hku.hk