Plenary 7: Question everything you thought you knew about mental health and neurodiversity

Plenary Description

Psychiatric diagnoses rely on subjective foundations. Without empirical anchors we are left with descriptors that cannot help us identify cases that share something unique in common beyond those imposed on them by the subjectivity of the person making the diagnosis. Mistaking a descriptive category for a diagnosis has resulted in a failure to improve scientific knowledge or clinical outcomes. Instead, categories for distress and difference have expanded into consumable brands and internalized identities, most notably in the emergence of the neurodiversity paradigm. I will explain the potential problems this approach causes at the individual, community, and population level and why this results in harm, particularly to young people. I will outline some pointers for how to work without reliance on the diagnostic paradigm.

Biographies

Dr Sami Timimi is a retired Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist, psychotherapist and author. He qualified as a doctor from Dundee University in 1988 and became a Member of the UK Royal College of Psychiatrists in 1992, becoming a Fellow of the college in 2012. He has many innovation awards and led multiple service developments including being the consultant for the child and adolescent team of the year at the 2023 annual Royal College of Psychiatrists awards.

He regularly presents as keynote speaker at national and international conferences and has many interviews with press, media and podcasts. He is an author who writes from a critical psychiatry perspective on topics relating to mental health and has published over a hundred and fifty articles and tens of chapters on many subjects including childhood, psychotherapy, behavioural problems, and cross-cultural psychiatry. He’s authored 7 books, co-edited 4 books, and co-authored 2 others. His latest book, first published in 2025 is Searching for Normal A New Approach to Understanding Distress and Neurodiversity.

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