A/Prof Miri Forbes (Macquarie University)

Title: The Future of Mental Disorder Classification: Problems, Progress, and Possibilities

Abstract:

There is growing evidence of substantial limitations in traditional, categorical approaches to the classification of mental disorders like the DSM and ICD. In this talk I will examine the case for rethinking how we classify mental illness, and introduce the Hierarchical Taxonomy of Psychopathology (HiTOP), which represents an emerging empirically derived alternative. The hierarchical and dimensional approach of the HiTOP framework offers promising solutions to the limitations of traditional approaches and offers new directions for research, assessment, and intervention. I will also address the challenges of changing our approach to classification, and explore why there are good reasons to be optimistic regardless.

Bio:

Miri Forbes is an Associate Professor in the School of Psychological Sciences at Macquarie University. Miri was awarded her PhD in Psychology in 2014, and went on to do a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Minnesota before returning to Australia for a Macquarie University Research Fellowship in 2018, followed by back-to-back NHMRC Investigator Grants funding her current program of research on improving the diagnosis, assessment, and classification of mental disorders. She is President of the international Hierarchical Taxonomy of Psychopathology (HiTOP) Society, and a member of the Executive Board of the Macquarie University Lifespan Health and Wellbeing Research Centre.