With apologies for x-posting
Seminar Series: ‘Cross Disciplinary Perspectives on antisocial personality disorder.’
aspd-incontext.org
Call for contributors:
‘Complex needs’ to ‘disordered personalities’: political discourses and practice responses
Date: 17th January 2017
Venue: The Foundry, Vauxhall, London SE11 5RR
Political and practice-based discourses in England and Wales have increasingly recognised a group of people said to have ‘complex needs’ and who face ‘multiple exclusions’ or ‘multiple disadvantages’. Their difficulties are often characterised by long term
unemployment, drug problems, and a range of mental health problems that include personality disorder and histories of trauma.
The appearance of such ideas in political and practice-based discourse has emerged alongside, and arguably coalesced with, alternative discourses around ‘responsibilisation’, criminalisation, and the immorality
of worklessness. These strands of political discourse have suggested that there are individuals who are not 'strivers', nor are they are part of 'hard working families'. Instead their homelessness, their lack of employment and their dependence on welfare has
led to labels as 'shirkers', or even 'scroungers'.
Such punitive language has perhaps, for example, encouraged the use of ‘Public Space Protection Orders’ to fine people who sleep rough or who ’beg’ for money – a move criticised by homeless charities for punishing the poor while ignoring
the ‘complex needs’ faced by this group of people.
Meanwhile, the UK government's intention to encourage the availability of psychological treatment services within job centres (announced, for example, in the 2015 budget) was heavily criticised as an inappropriate attempt to reconstruct
the social problems of unemployment and exclusion as issues of ‘disordered minds’ that were in need of treatment. The ‘troubled families’ initiative has struggled to evidence its impact.
The seminar will explore the psychosocial dynamics that surround policies and practices that are directed at those facing ‘complex needs’. It will address the appropriateness, or otherwise, of such (re)constructions and the types of intervention
that the different discourses surrounding these issues have engendered. What type of intervention might be appropriate and what are the dilemmas involved in addressing treatment towards such psychosocial problems?
If you are interested in contributing, please send an abstract or statement of interest (not more than 300 words) to David W Jones ([log in to unmask]) by
7th November. We can pay travel and accommodation costs for contributors.
Confirmed speakers:
Dr Chris Scanlon
Dr Alistair Roy (University of Central Lancashire)
Sarah Anderson (University of Glasgow)
Organised by:
Dr David W Jones (University of East London)
Dr Chris Scanlon (Commnuity Housing Therapy)
Professor David Gadd (University of Manchester)