Prof. Sue Estroff – Illness and Me: Having, Living With, Being?
16.02.2023

Abstract:

‘At War with My Skin’ is the title of an essay written by the well- known author John Updike about his ‘relationship’ with psoriasis.  “…psoriasis has the volatility of a disease, the sense of another presence co-occupying your body and singling you out from the happy herds of healthy, normal mankind…my condition forged a hidden link with things elemental—with the seasons, with the sun, and with my mother.”

David Granger describes himself as “a footnote, a case note, a clinical note, clinging to the understanding that I was a defective biological unit….time, matter, and the joke of genes and enzyme had exiled me to the sidelines of being.”  In common parlance he is neurodiverse, a survivor of psychiatric treatment, and has lived experience of psychosis.

Illness and Me: Having, Living with, Being? Is meant to be an interactive and interdisciplinary conversation about the ways in which we represent and understand how illness, injury, and disabling/disfiguring conditions are apprehended by their ‘hosts.’  Vocabularies of difference  and narrative authority are contested and differ across professional, social, and experiential terrains.  Identities and selves are negotiated rather than assigned.

Practical details and registration:

Prof. Estroff will present her ideas on February 16^th, 3pm-4.30pm CET (9am -10.30am EST). Please register via the following Zoom link:

https://ruhr-uni-bochum.zoom.us/meeting/register/u5UudOuorDsoHdPZMrWI4khIsW6wMHvOgd4L

Further program of the online lecture series:

• March 9th (10am – 11.30am CET / 5pm – 6.30pm CST) Alexandre Erler (Philosophy, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, Taiwan)

The role of authenticity in the context of mental disorder: distinguishing conceptual from practical considerations

• March 30th (3pm – 4.30pm CET / 2pm – 3.30pm BST) Ilina Singh (Psychiatry, University of Oxford, UK): Moral Politics of Inattention: Adventures in LaLa Land
• May 11th (3.30pm – 5pm CET) Sofia Jeppsson (Philosophy, Umeå University, Sweden): Drawing the line: Tentative reasons for a narrower or wider self conception
• June 29th (10am – 11.30 am CET / 6pm – 7.30pm AEST) Doug McConnell (Philosophy, Macquarie  University Australia) and Anna Golova (Philosophy, University of Oxford, UK): Narrative, addiction, and three aspects of self-ambiguity

Organizers:
Roy Dings (Ruhr University Bochum)
Sanneke de Haan (Tilburg University + Erasmus University Rotterdam)