Institute for Science and Society

Role(s): Postgraduate Student

Qualifications

BSc (Hons) (Biology with a Year in Industry: University of York)

AMSB (Society of Biology)

MA (Research Methods in Genetics, Biorisks and Society: University of Nottingham)

PhD (Sociology of Biomedicine: University of Nottingham)

Current research

I received my PhD from ISS in summer 2009 and am currently an ESRC Co-Investigator and Research Fellow in the College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine at the University of Edinburgh. My current work, carried out with Professor Sarah Cunningham-Burley (PI; University of Edinburgh) and Dr Paul Martin (Co-I; University of Nottingham) forms part of a research grant entitled ‘Constituting Neurologic Subjects: Neuroscience, Identity and Society after the ‘Decade of the Brain’’. Broadly, this empirical project concerns the ethical, political and social dimensions of neuroscience. I can be reached at the University of Edinburgh on: martyn.pickersgill@ed.ac.uk.

To date, my interdisciplinary research has focussed on the history and sociology of the human and biomedical sciences. Situated within science and technology studies (STS), my doctoral thesis, titled 'Ordering Disorderly Personalities: Co-Producing Antisocial Personality Disorder (ASPD) Through Science, Policy and Standards', presented a socio-historical analysis of ASPD from 1950 to 2007. In it, I showed how ASPD has become a treatable entity and object of governance, in spite of profound ontological uncertainty. In so doing, I sought to cast fresh light on the reciprocal constitution of psychiatry, science and law. These analytic foci are being developed further in my current work. I also have active research interests in sociological and STS approaches to public health. These continue the engagements with health sciences intitiated during my graduate degrees, during which time I co-founded a cross-faculty Qualitative Methods in Health and Psychosocial Research (QMiHPR) Group. Funded by the NHS, the group explores the use of qualitative methods in psychosocial and health research and facilitates training in this area.

I have been a visiting scholar at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University; the BIOS Centre, London School of Economics; and the Office of NIH History, National Institutes of Health (USA). I am also an Associate of the ESRC Innogen Centre, University of Edinburgh/Open University, and remain associated with the Institute of Mental Health (a collaborative venture between the University of Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust) and the Personality Disorder Institute, as part of their think-tank on Law, Policy and Ethics.

Books:

van Keulen, I. and Pickersgill, M. D. (eds) (2011) Advances in Medical Sociology: Sociological Reflections on Neuroscience, Bingley: Emerald.

Articles:

Pickersgill, M. (2009) 'Between Soma and Society: Neuroscience and the Ontology of Psychopathy', BioSocieties, 4 (1) 45-60.

Pickersgill, M. D. (2009) 'NICE Guidelines, Clinical Practice and Antisocial Personality Disorder: The Ethical Implications of Ontological Uncertainty', Journal of Medical Ethics, 35 (11) 668-671.

Pickersgill, M. (in press) 'From Psyche to Soma? Changing Accounts of Antisocial Personality Disorders in the American Journal of Psychiatry', History of Psychiatry.

Pickersgill, M. (in press) 'Psyche, Soma, and Science Studies: New Directions in the Sociology of Mental Health and Illness', Journal of Mental Health.

Stephens, J., Beer, C., Clarke, D., Pickersgill, M., Swift, J., Taylor, J. and Tischler, V. (2009) 'Qualitative Research in Mental Health: Reflections on Epistemology', Mental Health Review Journal, 14 (1): 36-42. 

Links:

Edinburgh Web Page 

Project Page 

Media summary

I am currently researching the history and sociology of antisocial personality disorder, and exploring the relationship between neuroscientific research and mental health practice and policy. My methods include archival research and interviews with scientists and clinicians, in the UK, the US, and Canada. My research intersects with literatures and policy debates on new medical technologies, mental health, and the ethical and social aspects and implications of psychiatry and neuroscience.