Seminar

Mental Health: Historical, Current, and Future Perspectives

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How has perceptions of mental health developed over time? How far have we come in understanding mental health, and how much further do we need to go? Can we truly comprehend modern mental health challenges without considering the historical context behind them?

In this seminar we examined various influences on these views, such as art and literature, and how they affect and reflect society’s changing attitudes. Our focus also turned to the challenges of the time, including the impact of social media on mental well-being and loneliness as a modern epidemic. Additionally, we explored societal perspectives on individuals with neuropsychiatric diagnoses and the stigma surrounding these conditions.

The seminar concluded with a forward-looking discussion on research areas of the time, such as nutritional psychology and the use of psychedelics in treatment — fields that hold the potential to change how we approach mental health in the future. This seminar offered an overview of mental health, covering historical perspectives, contemporary challenges, and future innovations.

Participants

Marie Kawthar Daouda

PhD in French and Comparative Literature, Author, and Lecturer, University of Oxford

Peter Degerman

Author, Associate Professor of Comparative Literature, Mid Sweden University

Pehr Granqvist

The Eneroth Professor of Psychology, Stockholm University

Rhodri Hayward

Reader in History, Queen Mary University of London

Eva Henje

Professor and Senior Specialist in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Umeå University

Catharina Lavebratt

Principal Researcher, Associate Professor, Karolinska Institutet

Brian A. Primack

Professor of Public Health, Oregon State University

Ginny Russell

Associate Professor, University of Exeter

Andrew Scull

Professor of Sociology, University of California San Diego

Nathan Shachar

Foreign Correspondent and Author

Lisa Thorell

Professor of Developmental Psychology, Karolinska Institutet

Lars Trägårdh

Professor of History, Uppsala University