An interesting seminar was held at the Centre for Mental Rehabilitation. This time on the topic of Freedom in the context of psychiatry

The seminar was opened by the Deputy Director of the Centre for Mental Rehabilitation Martin Hollý, MBA, with the topic "Hospitalization without patient consent", in which he focused on the legal aspects related to involuntary hospitalization and ethical dilemmas related to restricting the freedom of patients.

The invitation was also accepted by the renowned philosopher, essayist and translator doc. Mgr. Tereza Matějčková, Ph.D., who gave a lecture on the topic "Does a mentally ill person lose his or her freedom? And if so, which one?", in which she focused on the phenomenon of mental suffering from the point of view of philosophy. She emphasized that philosophers have been concerned with the phenomena of mental distress since the beginning of the discipline and have also tried to formulate philosophical therapies, particularly relevant in the case of the Stoics and their training in inertia. "For myself, however, the starting point was the Danish thinker Soren Kierkegaard and his notion of anxiety. This anxiety does not refer to something to be overcome. Rather, Kierkegaard argues that anxiety, or more precisely a certain type of anxiety, the so-called ontological anxiety, is natural to man, referring to his freedom, to the fact that it is natural for man to have no plan. Symptoms of what we would call mental illness arise paradoxically when a person is unable to tolerate this basic ontological anxiety and wants to give himself more substance, more certainty than is due to him," says Matějčková.

The seminar offered participants insight into the issue of freedom in the context of psychiatric care and opened up discussion on the legal, ethical and philosophical aspects of these topics.

The seminar was organised by the Event and Community team of the Beroun Rehabilitation Hospital. Participants received a certificate of participation with a score according to the Regulations on Continuing Education of Clinical Psychologists.

For more information about other educational events organized by Rehabilitation Hospital Beroun, please visit our website.