about the speakers
Robert Whitaker has covered medicine and science for twenty-one years. He was the science and medical reporter at the Albany Times Union newspaper in New York for a number of years, and he also worked for a period as director of publications at Harvard Medical School. His articles on the mentally ill and the drug industry have won several awards, including the George Polk award for medical writing, and the National Association of Science Writers’ award for best magazine article. His book Mad in America was named by Discover magazine as one of the 20 best science books of 2002; the American Library Association named it one of the best history books of that year. In 2010 he published “Anatomy of an Epidemic: Magic Bullets, Psychiatric Drugs, and the Astonishing Rise of Mental Illness in America” which won the Investigative Reporters and Editors Association award, book category, 2010.
Dr Sami Timimi is a Consultant Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist and a Visiting Professor of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry based in Lincoln, UK. He writes from a critical psychiatry perspective and has published many articles and books including A Straight Talking Introduction to Children’s Mental Health Problems and most recently The Myth of Autism: Medicalising Men’s and Boys’ Social and Emotional Competence. He is a founder member of the International Critical Psychiatry Network and recently launched the ‘No More Psychiatric Labels’ campaign to abolish formal psychiatric diagnostic systems.
Stephen Field is a leading London barrister with a broad judicial review practice. He specialises in criminal, prison, mental health and social judicial review. His work has resulted in new law upholding the Rights of the mentally ill
Erwin James is a writer well known for his Guardian newspaper columns, reports and features on prisons and criminal justice issues. His remarkable writings about life in prison, A Life Inside and The Home Stretch, have established themselves as classics of the genre. He is a passionate advocate of rehabilitation policies.
Dr Rex Haigh FRCPsych, is a Consultant Psychiatrist for Berkshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust and a Clinical Advisor National Personality Disorder Programme. He is a Senior Fellow Institute of Mental Health University of Nottingham and a Psychotherapy Advisor International Medical Corps, Kabul, Afghanistan where he is establishing a therapeutic community ethos (biopsychosocial medicine)
Dr David Pearson and Dr Fiona Kennedy are chartered clinical psychologists who have developed a specialised mentoring programme for street children in Bangalore [Bengaluru] India, which is fast becoming a model of its kind.
Peter Clarke, Director, Friends Therapeutic Community Trust, Glebe House, which is a residential home run as a Therapeutic Community for young men between 15 and 19 years old at time of referral, with a history of conduct disorders.
Dr Bob Johnson is a Consultant Psychiatrist and Co-founder of the James Nayler Foundation. Formerly at Parkhurst Prison, he specialises in the treatment of severe Personality Disorders. He is the author of ‘Emotional Health’, and of ‘unsafe at any dose’ proceeds from which help fund the Foundation