Birmingham Network for Phenomenology and Mental Health

There is still time to register for online attendance at our upcoming event! Please follow the link below.

Note: the registration form will close at midday on March 13th.

Event flyer featuring a glitchy image of an anguished-looking classical statue repeated with different levels of colour, grain, and opacity, as if the statue is fading in or out of existence.

EVENT: Hearing voices, suicidality, and 'AI psychosis'

A @uobphenomenal.bsky.social seminar drawing on perspectives from philosophy, mental health research, psychology, and lived experience.

Friday 20 March, 9am - 4.30pm UK time, online and in person.

#HearingVoices #MentalHealthResearch

Relationships and Mental Health, PHaR/BNPMH 2026 conference, Birmingham, May 12th We are excited to announce a collaborative, one-day conference event, in Birmingham UK, co-hosted by the Phenomenology of Health and Relatio...

You can find these details repeated here: birminghamphenomenalnetwork.blogspot.com/2026/02/rela...

Please also contact @ipanalysis.bsky.social or phar-aston@outlook.com with queries.

And look out for registration details soon!

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Proposals should be submitted by email to phar-aston@outlook.com by 20/3/26. Please write ‘2026 Submission’ in the subject header of your email and attach a Word document containing an abstract, the title for your proposed contribution, and your preferred format.

ECRs are encouraged to apply!

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We are welcoming proposals for papers, symposia, discussions, workshops or other academic activities which draw upon phenomenological concepts or experiential methods, and which engage with mental health and relationships, or the process of understanding their experience and meaning.

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📣CFP: "Relationships and Mental Health", Birmingham, May 12th 2026

We are excited to announce a collaboration with our lovely colleagues in the Phenomenology of Health and Relationships (PHaR) group at Aston University on a one-day conference along the theme: Relationships and Mental Health

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Are Conspiracy Theorists Confabulating? - Review of Philosophy and Psychology In this paper, I outline the mechanisms of confabulation and how these mechanisms facilitate not only the maintenance of belief in conspiracy theories, but also their initial adoption. I argue by infe...

Finally out!
TLDR: People don't feel shit cause they believe wild conspiracy theories, they believe CTs cause they feel shit. CT beliefs are often confabulations explaining their existential predicament. I drew on LOTS empirical stuff to try & make this defeasible:
link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Spaces for this event are filling up so this is just a reminder that if you would like to come to this event in person, please do register early!

You can also register for online attendance and to receive recordings of the events with the same link below:

Call for papers: Philosophy through Art, Games, and Fiction think.taylorandfranc... Guest editor: Lisa Bortolotti. Deadline: 31 July 2026. Submit your work! #philsky #philpsy

Following along with this today! Interesting discussion of metaphor and narrative as 'sensemaking tools' re: unshared beliefs. Reinforces for me the importance of safe, non-judgmental spaces where people can speak about their beliefs and experiences, like a Hearing Voices group -Sarah, HV Team

Excited to speak at this! 🤓

Network Seminar: "Hearing voices, suicidality, and AI-psychosis", 20th March, Birmingham and Online Location In person: Assembly Room, The Exchange, 3 Centenary Square, Birmingham, B1 2DR. Online: Teams meeting. Date and time 20th March 202...

📅Save the date! Our next Network seminar will be on "Hearing voices, suicidality, and AI-psychosis", March 20th 2026, Hybrid

This is a collaboration with @hearingvoicesmic.bsky.social and #ProjectEPIC

Find more info and registration here:

birminghamphenomenalnetwork.blogspot.com/2025/12/netw...

We are now out of in-person places at our workshop, but there's always plenty of room online!

Please sign up below to receive the link before the event. If you are still keen to come in person, you can also sign up to the wait list and we will contact you if there is space.

The event will be taking place on Jan 14, 9.30-16.30, at The Studio in central Birmingham and online.

Confirmed speakers include Prof. Ray Gibbs, Prof. Francesca Ervas, Dr Kathleen Murphy-Hollies, and Dr Francesca Brencio.

In-person places are limited so please do register.

Network Seminar: "Metaphorical Framings of Emotions in Mental Health", January 14th, Birmingham and Online Emotions are important drivers of human behaviour. They help shape our goals and desires and endow our lives with meaning. Insights into emo...

📣Announcing our third seminar in the series, titled "Metaphorical Framings of Emotions in Mental Health"!

Please join us for a wonderful day discussing language, affect and experience!

See schedule and registration details here:

birminghamphenomenalnetwork.blogspot.com/2025/11/netw...

Great day with rich discussions. The talks all went so well together. #psychedelics #phenomenology #mentalhealth @uobphenomenal.bsky.social

We had an absolutely fantastic seminar last Wednesday 🤩 We talked about stigma, oceanic feelings, predictive processing, the importance of community and more!

This was great! Ageing is one of those topics where thinking about it even just a little bit and sharing experiences with others goes a long way to making us way more lucid about it. The default usually is to never think about it unless forced! This book club feels safe & sparks interesting convos.

Our schedule for our next network seminar has now been finalised!

Check out our website for the full list of awesome talks:

birminghamphenomenalnetwork.blogspot.com/2025/10/netw...

P.S. there's still time to register!

Coming soon: Webinar: Evaluating impact in Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement (PPIE).

Join us for this FREE 90-minute session on the different approaches to evaluating PPIE in health research, led by #PPIE experts.

📆Tues 21 Oct 2025, 1-2.30pm

Register: tinyurl.com/5xvmpdmw

Don’t forget to sign up to our new reading group! We’ll be meeting in two weeks to discuss the beginning of section 5: “The Discovery and Assumption of Old Age: The Body’s Experience” (pp.314-345 of the 1985 Penguin Modern Classics edition)

This week on Behind the Stigma Podcast🎙️, I spoke to @isernmas.bsky.social on their excellent paper 'Unmasking therapy speak' - what they describe as a superficial use of psychotherapy language. We spoke about what that means & its wider impact. Listen here:🤩 www.buzzsprout.com/1402324/epis...

Monthly Phenomenology, 6th Season (2025–2026) - Online
Francesca Forlè - Embodied Affectivity. A Phenomenological Account of the Connection between Affective Phenomena and Bodily Expressions
24 October 2025
From the Network for Phenomenological Research
www.thebsp.org.uk/2025/10/09/m...

In-person places are limited so please do sign-up using this form: forms.cloud.microsoft/e/EsTMPqiedZ

Online attendance will also be facilitated!

Network Seminar: "Psychedelics, Phenomenology, & Mental Health", November 5th 2025, Birmingham and Online The second seminar in the series organised by the Birmingham Network for Phenomenology and Mental Health will be held on 5 November 2025 at ...

Speakers include Eirini Argyri (University of Exeter), Joanna Vamvakopoulou (Imperial), Matt Hayler (University of Birmingham) and Amadeus Harte (Princeton University). The full schedule will be announced on our website soon:

birminghamphenomenalnetwork.blogspot.com/2025/10/netw...

📣Announcing our Psychedelics, Phenomenology, & Mental Health seminar, 5.11.25, Birmingham and Online

Drawing on phenomenological perspectives, the workshop will bring together interdisciplinary scholars to discuss the potential of psychedelic experiences for addressing mental health challenges.

The promises and perils of the psychedelic turn in psychiatry Published in Philosophical Psychology (Vol. 38, No. 7, 2025)

New special issue out on psychedelic treatments! Guest editor Elly Vintiadis, who also authored the introduction: doi.org/10.1080/0951... Free access! Follow this thread to know more about the other contributions #vol38issue7 #psychedelics #philsky #philpsy
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Call for papers: Ian Hacking and the Philosophy of Psychiatry. Deadline: 1st February 2026. Guest editors: Şerife Tekin and Jonathan Y. Tsou. Submit your work! think.taylorandfranc... #philsky #philpsy #philsci

Launching: de Beauvoir Reading Group on "Old Age" Network members Valeria Motta, Andrew Maile and Jodie Russell are excited to announce that start of a new reading group starting October 28t...

Interested in feminist approaches to age and mental health?

Join our new reading group starting October 28th where we will be discussing part 2 of Simone de Beauvoir's "Old Age".

Sign up and and see the schedule here: birminghamphenomenalnetwork.blogspot.com/2025/09/laun...