A workshop organized by Gabriella Crocco, in collaboration with Michael Koslowski and Arnaud Rey
Mental Health: A Complex Issue
According to the WHO, mental disorders affect one in four people worldwide. In France, these disorders lead to more than 10,000 suicides and nearly 200,000 suicide attempts each year. At the same time, the sale of antidepressants has increased sevenfold between 1980 and 2000.
The effects of the last two years of the pandemic have only highlighted the severity of an issue that continues to grow more complex every year:
- Overcrowding of psychiatric and psychological consultations
- Inadequacy of public support structures in schools, universities, workplaces, prisons, and retirement homes
- Surging consumption of psychotropic drugs, anxiolytics, and antidepressants, due to the lack of access to talk therapies
- The introduction of teleconsultation, with little in-depth analysis of its effectiveness as a therapeutic consultation method
Regardless of the scope of public health policies implemented over the past forty years, any new political action must be accompanied by in-depth theoretical reflection. This requires an interdisciplinary analysis of three key aspects of the issue.
Mental Health and Public Health: An Inextricable Link
The first aspect concerns the assessment of mental health as a public health issue. While public institutions hold vast amounts of statistical data, their interpretation requires in-depth research.
There is a clear connection between the rise in psychological distress and the anthropological and social changes of the past forty years:
- Acceleration of life rhythms
- Increased multitasking demands
- The impact of the digital revolution on all aspects of society (education, work, family, entertainment, self-fulfillment, social life)
Understanding public health statistics in light of these societal shifts is a crucial step toward effective solutions. On this topic, collaboration with the social sciences is essential.
Redefining the Concept of Mental Health
The second aspect concerns the definition of mental health itself. Every mental disorder is defined in relation to an implicit norm, which must be analyzed through its theoretical foundations.
Since 1943, the DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manuals of Mental Disorders), published by the American Psychiatric Association, have significantly shaped this debate. Built on an inductive approach, these manuals often define disorders based on the pharmacological treatments available to manage their symptoms.
A new debate must emerge to refine the concept of mental health, taking into account:
a) Insights from neuroscience: By analyzing neural traces and representations of lived experiences, neuroscience reinterprets mental health through the concepts of brain plasticity and homeostasis.
b) Theoretical, philosophical, psychoanalytic, and anthropological perspectives: The major theories of the 20th century have identified key pathological structures, such as neuroses and psychoses.
Clinical Approaches and Treatments: Toward an Integrated Model
The third aspect focuses on clinical practice and the various therapeutic approaches developed over the decades, whether or not they incorporate pharmacological treatments.
Any mental health policy must be grounded in a historical analysis of the major therapeutic movements that have shaped the field:
- Anti-psychiatry in the 1970s-1980s
- Cognitive-behavioral therapies (CBT) at the turn of the 21st century
- Diversification of talk therapies, particularly those inspired by psychoanalysis
Analyzing these therapeutic models helps identify the most effective strategies for addressing the current mental health crisis.
In the face of a growing crisis, it is urgent to adopt an interdisciplinary approach combining social sciences, neuroscience, psychiatry, philosophy, and public health policies.
Only a comprehensive understanding of the issue will allow for the development of effective solutions that meet individual needs and improve the mental well-being of the population.
For the 2024/2025 academic year, the workshop dates are as follows:
- Susanne Fuchs 6/12/24
- Michael Koslowski 7/2/25
- Peter Simor 7/3/25
- Michael Koslowski 22/03/25
- Antoni Fornells 15/5/25
- Thomas Rabeyron 06/06/25
December 6, 2024: Susanne Fuchs, ILCB/Iméra fellow 2024-2025
Relationship between breathing and mental health
Susanne Fuchs’ research focuses on the biopsychosocial foundations of speech and language and their multimodal manifestations in human interaction. After a brief overview of the fundamental achievements of her research in this field, she will analyse the problem of the relationship between breathing and mental health.
Article: Fuchs, S., & Rochet-Capellan, A. (2020). The Respiratory Foundations of Spoken Language. Annual Review Of Linguistics, 7(1), 13‑30. doi: 10.1146/annurev-linguistics-031720-103907
February 7, 2025: Michael Koslowski, Psychiatrist, researcher at CHU Charité Berlin
Psilocybin in the treatment of treatment-resistant depression: initial results of the EPIsoDE study.
Around 100 million people worldwide suffer from resistant depression. This pathology, which is currently on the rise, has a number of consequences, including a functional impact for patients, but also a societal impact. To remedy this urgent situation, several clinical studies using psilocybin have been conducted in this indication in recent years. In the largest study to date, a single administration of 25 mg of psilocybin showed a rapid, powerful and long-lasting antidepressant effect for several weeks, with an acceptable side-effect profile (Goodwyn 2022).
In Germany, the EPIsoDE study, funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), was conducted between 2021 and 2024 at the Berlin and Mannheim sites. It also evaluated the efficacy and safety of psilocybin in the treatment of resistant depression (NCT04670081). The design of this study made it possible to address methodological issues (e.g. placebo control) and to assess whether a second high dose of psilocybin further increased efficacy (Mertens 2022). In addition, the links between the antidepressant effect and changes in brain activation (fMRI), epigenetics, the microbiome, the inflammatory system and the stress system were studied in order to identify mechanisms and potential biomarkers.
During this session, Dr Michael Koslowski, one of the EPIsoDE study doctors who played an important role in planning and carrying out this trial in Berlin, will present the initial results.
Articles: Goodwin, G. M., Aaronson, S. T., Alvarez, O., Arden, P. C., Baker, A., Bennett, J. C., … & Malievskaia, E. (2022). Single-dose psilocybin for a treatment-resistant episode of major depression. New England Journal of Medicine, 387 (18), 1637-1648.
Mertens, L. J., Koslowski, M., Betzler, F., Evens, R., Gilles, M., Jungaberle, A., … & Gründer, G. (2022). Methodological challenges in psychedelic drug trials: efficacy and safety of psilocybin in treatment-resistant major depression (EPIsoDE)–rationale and study design. Neuroscience Applied, 1, 100104.
March 7, 2025: Peter Daniel Simor, Associate Professor at Eötvös-Loránd University, Institute of Psychology (Budapest), ILCB/Iméra fellow 2024-2025
A forgotten treasure in the dark: the role of sleep disruption in mental health complaints.
Impaired sleep quality is among the most common complaints in psychiatric conditions including mood and anxiety disorders, psychotic states, personality disorders or substance-abuse.
Since sleep disruption emerged as a transdiagnostic factor, its clinical relevance was notoriously overlooked and considered as a secondary-symptom that automatically ameliorates if the mental problem is adequately treated. Recent studies and clinical observations however, highlighted the misleading nature of this assumption. Although sleep problems are ubiquitous in mental disorders, 1) sleep problems do not necessarily improve even if the (wake) symptoms are reduced; 2) in many cases sleep complaints appear before and predict the onset of mental disorders; and 3) the targeted treatment of sleep problems has a beneficial effect on mental complains.
Accordingly, research findings indicate that sleep quality has a contributory role in the occurrence and maintenance of a variety of mental health problems, and instead of being merely the “nocturnal impact” of an underlying mental disorder, shows bidirectional associations with mental health complaints, or even more, a causal pathway from sleep complaints to mental health problems emerged. In this talk, Peter will summarize the most relevant research methods aiming to bridge sleep and mental health research and highlighting the key role of sleep in mental health.
Article: Freeman D, Sheaves B, Waite F, Harvey AG, Harrison PJ. Sleep disturbance and psychiatric disorders. Lancet Psychiatry. 2020 Jul;7(7):628-637. doi: 10.1016/S2215-0366(20)30136-X. PMID: 32563308.
March 22, 2025: Michael Koslowski, Psychiatrist, researcher at CHU Charité Berlin
A complex systems perspective on psychedelic brain action.
Article: Girn M, Rosas FE, Daws RE, Gallen CL, Gazzaley A, Carhart-Harris RL. A complex systems perspective on psychedelic brain action. Trends Cogn Sci. 2023 May;27(5):433-445. doi: 10.1016/j.tics.2023.01.003. Epub 2023 Feb 3. PMID: 36740518.
May 16, 2025: Antoni Rodriguez Fornells, Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Barcelona, FIAS FP x Iméra 2024-2025 fellow
Curiosity and cognitive exploration as important factors in mental health
Antoni Rodriguez Fornells will review the notions of curiosity and exploration (cognitive information seeking) and their potential relationship with well-being and mental health. Although interesting, this concept of curiosity has received very little attention in the literature, particularly in relation to the impact of curiosity in psychological therapy. As a case study, our guest will present a recent longitudinal analysis he conducted on counterfactual thinking in mental health, in order to highlight the importance of backward cognitive exploration and the effect of time on the modulation of these processes. Overall, the workshop will attempt to understand the impact of different forms of cognitive exploration and their positive or negative consequences for human well-being.
Article : Kidd, C., & Hayden, B. Y. (2015). The Psychology and Neuroscience of Curiosity. Neuron, 88(3), 449‑460. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2015.09.010
June 6, 2025: Thomas Rabeyron, clinical psychologist and professor of clinical psychology and psychopathology at Lyon 2 University within the Centre de Recherche en Psychopathologie et Psychologie Clinique (UR653).
Assessment of psychoanalytic psychotherapies and psychoanalysis
This presentation will provide a review of research on the evaluation and effectiveness of psychoanalytic psychotherapies and psychoanalysis (PPP). We will begin with an overview of methods for evaluating psychotherapies before focusing on empirical studies that have more specifically measured the effectiveness of PPP. Finally, we will review the most recent debates on how to study the psychotherapeutic process using both an empirical and a qualitative approach.
Article: Roese, N. J., & Epstude, K. (2017). The Functional Theory of Counterfactual Thinking : New Evidence, New Challenges, New Insights. Advances in experimental social psychology (p. 1‑79). https://doi.org/10.1016/bs.aesp.2017.02.001
January 19, 2024: Jean-Charles Bernard – Marseille Hospitals – Public Assistance, Baumettes Prison
“Psychiatric Care in the Prison Environment”
After a brief presentation of his background, Jean-Charles Bernard will introduce us to the specificities of psychiatric practice in a prison setting—its realities, the inevitable relativity of its outcomes, and the theoretical questions it raises for psychiatry. Access to care in prison takes place in a context where the link between psychological difficulties and incarceration is inextricable (echoing the continuity highlighted in the December presentation between psychological difficulties and poverty).
To illustrate the unique aspects of psychological work in prison, we will examine the specific issue of denial through Canino’s 2008 text. Finally, we will conclude the presentation with an ethical question: Is the treatment of psychological suffering truly possible in prison—that is, in conditions that are inherently challenging for mental health?
Suggested article: Rémy Canino, The Clinical Relationship and the Processes of Denial in Criminal Subjects, Bulletin de psychologie, 2008/1, Issue 493, pp. 17-29
December 15, 2023 – John Naslund (Harvard Medical School)
Psychosocial Interventions for Mental Health Promotion and Poverty Alleviation: Opportunities to Advance Economic Development
Discussion on the objectives, methods/approaches, and next steps for preparing a proposal to submit to the Fund for Innovation in Development (FID) to evaluate a psychosocial intervention as a means to address mental health issues while promoting economic development.
Discussion of a successful trial conducted in Niger, recently published in Nature:
Tackling Psychosocial and Capital Constraints to Alleviate Poverty (Nature, 2021), Thomas Bossuroy, Markus Goldstein, Bassirou Karimou, Dean Karlan, Harounan Kazianga, William Parienté, Patrick Premand, Catherine C. Thomas,
November 17, 2023 – Arnaud Rey (CNRS Researcher, LPC)
Michel Foucault and Behaviorism
Presentation based on Michel Foucault’s Mental Illness and Personality, Chapter 6: The Psychology of Conflict.
October 20, 2023 – Gabriella Crocco, Professor at AMU, Interdisciplinary Explorations
Presentation and discussion of Michel Foucault’s book Mental Illness and Psychology.
The early 1950s were a period of both philosophical work and discovery for Michel Foucault, spanning literature, psychology, and psychiatry. He earned degrees in psychopathology and experimental psychology in 1952 and 1953 and attended Lacan’s seminar at Sainte-Anne. In this text, published in 1954, Foucault observed that “psychology only became possible in our world once madness was brought under control.”
If defining psychological illness and health seems so difficult, is it not because we vainly attempt to apply to them concepts originally intended for somatic medicine? Beyond mental and organic pathology, there exists a general and abstract pathology that dominates both, imposing the same concepts as prejudices and prescribing the same methods as postulates. We seek to show that the root of mental pathology should not be sought in some ‘metapathology’ but rather in a historically situated relationship between man, the madman, and the true man.
— Michel Foucault, Introduction
September 22, 2023 – Planning of Activities for the 2023-24 Academic Year
Development of the 2023-24 Workshop Program:
This year, the workshop will alternate between collective reading sessions and discussions of articles and books on mental health in its social, theoretical, and clinical dimensions, as well as guest lectures addressing specific issues related to places where mental health challenges are a daily reality (palliative care centers, schools and educational systems, migrant reception centers, prisons, hospitals, and emergency services).
Initiation of a Collective Book on The Renaissance of Psychedelics in France
Interdisciplinary contributions to the debate on the opening of clinical trials in France for the treatment of resistant depression, end-of-life care, anxiety disorders, and addiction issues. The book will be edited by Michael Koslowski (Charité Hospital, Berlin, Iméra resident 2022-23) and Zoé Dubus (medical historian, AMU) and will compile contributions from various participants in the Mental Health workshop.
July 7, 2023 – Silvia Torresin, Psychotherapist at the Osiris Care Center (Association for Therapeutic Support to Victims of Torture and Political Repression)
Psychoanalysis, Ethnopsychiatry, Ethnotherapy?
For discussions on understanding and addressing suffering to be fruitful, a reflection on the supposed universality of psychological disciplines is necessary. Encounters with other (therapeutic) knowledge systems highlight critical issues in psychoanalysis and psychiatry that must be analyzed within an interdisciplinary framework.
In other words, the cultural hybridization and globalization of psychiatric categories—driven by the widespread adoption of the dominant medical model through the DSM—compel us to rethink the relationships between psychiatry and cultures today.
Preparatory article:
The Globalization of Categories: Depression and the Test of Universality, Adriana Petryna and Arthur Kleinman, L’Autre, 2001/3 (Vol. 2), pp. 467-480
June 2, 2023 – Arnaud Rey (CNRS LPC AMU)
Presenting an article by R. Carhart and K.J. Friston on The Entropic Brain
R. L. Carhart-Harris and K. J. Friston:
The Default-Mode, Ego-Functions, and Free-Energy: A Neurobiological Account of Freudian Ideas, Brain (2010), 133: 1265–1283
This article explores the idea that Freudian concepts may have neurobiological substrates. Specifically, it proposes that Freud’s descriptions of primary and secondary processes align with self-organized activity in hierarchical cortical systems, and that his concept of the ego corresponds with the functions of the default-mode network and its reciprocal exchanges with subordinate brain systems.
This neurobiological account is based on a view of the brain as a hierarchical inference machine, similar to a Helmholtz machine, aiming to optimize its representation of the sensory environment by minimizing free energy—an approach formally analogous to Freud’s energy processing formulations. The article supports this synthesis by linking Freud’s primary process descriptions to REM sleep, early-stage psychosis, temporal lobe epilepsy auras, and psychedelic drug states.
May 5, 2023 – Resumption of the Collective Discussion on the Creation of a Public Book on the Renaissance of Psychedelics
Discussion on key themes for the book (clinical trials, history of psychedelic substance use in therapy, relationship between their prescription and talk therapy, comparative analysis of their use in other cultures, connection to mindfulness practices, and ethical considerations); initial role distribution and list of key figures to contact.
April 7, 2023 – General Discussion
Review of the March 8-9 initiative on clinical trials related to the renaissance of psychedelics in psychiatry.
Future projects and discussion topics: launch of the editorial project for a book on the subject.
March 8-9, 2023 – International Workshop and Public Event on the “Renaissance” of Psychedelic Research and Therapy in France
This public event and two-day workshop on the design and planning of clinical trials with psychedelic therapy were primarily organized by Iméra resident Dr. Michael Koslowski, in collaboration with the Psychedelic Medicine section of the French Association of Biological Psychiatry and Neuropsychopharmacology (AFPBN).
The initiative was divided into two parts:
- Two days of discussions among teams from European public university hospitals (France, Germany, Switzerland) involved in psychedelic clinical trials.
Speakers included:
(Gerhard Gründer, Lea Mertens, Ricarda Evens, Tomislav Majic, Felix Betzler, etc.)
- A public discussion event:
- Vincent Verroust, Paris: Medical Use of Psychedelics in France: Lessons from History for the Future?
- Dr. Michael Koslowski, Marseille/Berlin: The Renaissance of Psychedelics in Psychiatry
- Dr. Lucie Berkovitch, Paris: Starting Over: Upcoming Clinical Trials with Psychedelics in France
January 2023 – Presentation by Nancy Hunt (Iméra Resident), University of California
Hospitals, Psychiatric Care, and Global Mental Health in Bukavu (Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Discussion based on the article:
Space, Temporality, and Reverie: Writing the History of Futures in Colonial Congo
Politique Africaine, No. 135 (Oct. 2014): 115-136