Philosophy of Mental Health
@ Middle Street

This project encompasses a series of initiatives, led by Craig French, bringing the philosophy of mental health to the Middle Street Resource Centre. It has involved a range of mental health service users, mental health support workers, and interested members of the public.

The Project

The Middle Street Resource Centre is a mental health focussed community centre based in Beeston. It offers a variety of mental health support groups, therapeutic one-to-one support, and volunteering opportunities to promote mental health. It houses a wonderful community cafe and garden.

The philosophy of mental health @ middle street project is all about bringing philosophical discussion of mental health to the centre! It provides an opportunity for people who use, work at, and visit the centre to do philosophy. It showcases the power of philosophy by exploring how well it applies to something crucial to our everyday lives: our mental health and well-being.

The project currently involves a fortnightly philosophy of mental health discussion group which all are welcome to attend!

Project History & Resources

On November 14th 2023, we held an event as part of the Being Human Festival on Creativity, Making Meaning, and Mental Health.

The project began in March 2023 with a discussion event: Is Mental Illness a Useful Concept?

In June-July 2023, we continued with a series of events at Middle Street under the heading "Let's Talk About ... Philosophy of Mental Health", these included discussions around:

This part of the project was facilitated by our team members: Craig French and Giorgio Mazzullo.

The resources below are (1) a session handout (which includes reading and podcast recommendations), and two kinds of resource co-produced with session participants: (2) a summary of the participant contributions, and (3) a short video discussion of participant contributions. We hope these resources showcase the important philosophical ideas and angles that participants bring brought to the sessions!

Illness and Suffering

01.

Session Handout

02.

Summary of participant contributions

03.

Discussion of participant contributions

Addiction and Freedom

01.