Psychosomatic Disorders: Real or Imagined?

• This event is a production of the Emory Department of Psychiatry and the Emory Neuroethics Program.
• It is free and open to the public.
• RSVPs are not required to attend.
• Seating will be on a first-come basis.
• Our Open Seating Policy (https://www.meetup.com/AtlantaScienceTavern/messages/boards/thread/40928272) will be in effect.
• The evening's program will begin at 7:00 pm.
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Psychosomatic Disorders: Real or Imagined?

What do you do when you have a disorder that your doctor says doesn’t truly exist?

The term psychosomatic characterizes a disorder that is a manifestation of the mind “psycho” and the body “somatic." But with advances in neuroscience in medicine, can we truly find a somatic disorder that is divorced from the mind and our mental processes?

Patients diagnosed with a functional neurological disorders, are particularly vulnerable to this mind-body divide so prevalent in Western medicine. These patients manifest symptoms, like seizures, that may appear to be neurological, yet are difficult to reconcile with current models of brain physiology and psychology.

Please join us at this special meetup, organized as part of the conference, Controversial labels and clinical uncertainties: psychogenic disorders, conversion disorders, and functional symptoms, to hear a panel of four experts in mind-body science, philosophy, and medicine discuss the need for a new way of addressing these disorders and the problems inherent in our current conceptualizations of mind-body phenomena.

As a departure from the usual question-and-answer session, this meetup will feature questions from conference organizers for you to consider. They are intended to help develop a better understanding of problems related to these disorders. Your answers and comments will serve as food-for-thought for conference participants who will also be present in the audience at Manuel's.
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Panelists

Dr. Andy Miller (http://behavioralimmunology.com/andrew-h-miller-ph-d/), psychiatrist and director of Emory’s Behavioral Immunology Program (formerly called the Mind-Body Program)

Dr. Lobsang Tenzin Negi (http://religion.emory.edu/home/people/faculty/negi-lobsang.html), former monk and Director of the Emory-Tibet Partnership, Co-Director of both the Emory-Tibet Science Initiative

Dr. Bobby Paul (http://ila.emory.edu/home/people/faculty/paul.html), a psychological anthropologist with expertise in psychoanalysis.

Dr. Suzette LaRoche (http://www.emoryhealthcare.org/physicians/l/laroche-suzette.html), a neurologist with a specialization in epilepsy and psychogenic non-epileptic seizures

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This event is the public component of the consensus conference, Controversial labels and clinical uncertainties: psychogenic disorders, conversion disorders, and functional symptoms.