Calleva seminar: ‘Understanding and treating paranoia’

The seminar will be delivered by Professor Daniel Freeman FBA (Fellow in Experimental Psychology).

Excessive mistrust has become ubiquitous. The stakes are high: when mistrust gets out of hand the consequences — both for individuals’ mental and physical wellbeing and for society in general — can be catastrophic. Yet, though we are increasingly willing to discuss our depression or anxiety problems, paranoia is rarely discussed and, as such, generally little understood. In this talk Prof Freeman will describe his advances in understanding and treating severe paranoia. This will include the development of the Feeling Safe programme, the most effective treatment for persecutory delusions, and the use of immersive virtual reality (VR) to help patients relearn safety, overcome mistrust, and reengage with activities.

The Seminar will be held in the Magdalen Auditorium and those interested can either attend in-person or watch the livestream. To register for either mode of attendance, please click here.

For questions, please contact the Calleva Centre for Evolution and Human Science at calleva.centre@magd.ox.ac.uk. To be informed about future Calleva events, those interested can sign up to the Centre’s mailing list here.