Is Scrupulosity a Mental Illness?
Some people are extremely moral, sacrificing much of their lives to help others. Other people are extremely religious, filling their days with prayers and rituals. However, morality and religion can sometimes go so far that people are diagnosed with Scrupulosity, a form of OCD or OCPD whose characteristic obsessions and compulsions focus on morality or religion. What is the difference between patients with scrupulosity and exemplars of morality and religion? Why do we classify the former as mentally ill but not the latter? This talk will describe cases of Scrupulosity and its general characteristics and diagnosis, contrast moral saints and religious extremists with Scrupulosity patients, and argue that Scrupulosity is a mental illness on any plausible definition of mental illness, including the definition in DSM-5.
Date:
12 November 2015, 10:00
Venue:
Warneford Hospital, Headington OX3 7JX
Venue Details:
Seminar Room, University Department of Psychiatry
Speaker:
Professor Walter Sinnott-Armstrong (Chauncey Stillman Professor of Practical Ethics, Duke University)
Organising department:
Department of Psychiatry
Organiser:
Tracy Lindsey
Part of:
General Talks
Topics:
Booking required?:
Not required
Audience:
Members of the University only
Editors:
Anne Bowtell,
Tracy Lindsey
