Birmingham Heroes for Mental Health

Michael and I, together with post-doctoral researcher Ema Sullivan-Bissett, are taking part in a new campaign launched by the University of Birmingham on research that matters. Our project on the potential benefits of imperfect cognitions (PERFECT) is featured in the Birmingham Heroes website and posters. One of its aims is to challenge the stigma associated with mental illness.

Success, Rationality, and Optimism: an Update

My own parallel projects have made progress lately and I feel confident that they will interface very nicely with the preparation for our project on success. My current ERC funded project, PERFECT, is entering its second year and articles describing some of our first results are being published. This week a paper in which I argue (with Kengo Miyazono) that delusional beliefs can have psychological and epistemic benefits (as well as obvious costs) has appeared in Erkenntnis, and I am curious to see what reactions it will provoke. It is the basis for a talk I will give later this month at the Royal College of Psychiatrists International Congress in Birmingham, where with Richard Bentall and Phil Corlett I will be examining the function of delusions. The fact that something so obviously detrimental and upsetting as a delusional belief may be found to play a useful role in some circumstances speaks to the complexity of the relationship between success and mental health.