Paradigms in Physics and Psychiatry: Lecture at the Hyderabad Central University

On the 31st July I had my lecture on paradigms in physics and psychiatry at the Department of Philosophy of the Hyderabad Central University. The lecture argued that the currently dominating bilogical paradigm of psychiatry has its roots in the Newtonian paradigm of physics and that this outdated paradigm, in combination with the legal authority to deprive people with mental disorders of their fundamental rights can easily result in inhuman situations. The lecture and the subsequent discussion called for a challenge to the hegemony of this paradigm enabling competing paradigms co-exist to provide with a more humane mental health care.