Penn Bioethics Seminar Series (PBS): M. Carmela Epright, PhD. "Self-Diagnosis and its Discontents: The Long Term Consequences of a BPD Label"

Self-Diagnosis and its Discontents: The Long Term Consequences of a BPD Label
 

M. Carmela Epright, PhD

Professor of Philosophy
Furman University 

In this presentation Dr. Epright addresses the impact of social media usage on the mental health of adolescents by focusing on a less well documented but deeply troubling phenomena: the increasing use of information gleaned from social media to self-diagnose mental illnesses. Dr. Epright considers the convergence of factors that make self-diagnosis attractive; analyzes the rise of “mental illness influencers;” explains the powerful and seductive draw of these influencers (particularly to adolescent women between the ages of 12 and 17); illustrates the ways that influencers support and promote self-diagnosis, and in some cases, even provide step-by-step instructions intended to help their followers convince physicians to validate and formalize their diagnosis. Finally, using the example of borderline personality disorder, Dr. Epright examines the potential long-term (even lifelong) harms associated with relying on improper authority, misinformation, and subterfuge to obtain any diagnosis (much less a highly stigmatized one).

M. Carmela Epright is a Professor of Philosophy at Furman University, a Clinical Professor of Neuropsychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, and Clinical Professor of Biomedical Sciences at the University of South Carolina School of Medicine. She also serves as Furman University’s Research Director for the Health Sciences Center at Prisma Healthcare.

Dr. Epright received her M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in philosophy and an M.A. in Applied Ethics from Loyola University, Chicago. She completed post-doctoral work in general psychiatry at Dartmouth’s Geisel School of Medicine, and in forensic psychiatry at the University of South Carolina School of Medicine. She has received multiple teaching awards, including Furman University’s Award for Meritorious Teaching, and the Maiden Award for Excellence in Teaching to Promote Diversity and Inclusion. In addition to her work as a professor, Dr. Epright serves as a clinical ethicist and ethics consultant to numerous medical entities, including the South Carolina Medical Association, the Medical University of South Carolina, and both branches of the University of South Carolina School of Medicine (Greenville and Columbia). She has received grant funding from multiple organizations including the John and Ethel Piper and the John Templeton Foundations. Dr. Epright has published articles in bioethics, psychiatry, moral theory, and philosophy of law. Her current research focuses upon the evaluation and treatment of the mentally ill defendants and prisoners; mental illness and mass violence; and human rights issues related to persons with mental illnesses.

Lunch provided. Streaming available via Zoom.