Starting on Monday 3 December, Professor Daniel Freeman presents a new ten-part BBC Radio 4 series called A History of Delusions. Professor Freeman is a Univ Supernumerary Fellow in the Department of Psychiatry who has been researching and treating delusions for the past twenty years.  At the heart of each episode is an interview with an individual who has experienced a delusion. The listeners will hear the kind of conversation normally confined to the therapy room.

The programmes also present cases from the archives, from the Renaissance through to the asylums of Paris and the psychiatric hospitals of Victorian Britain, to observe the influence of the political and social climate on the content of delusions. Professor Freeman also interviews psychologists and psychiatrists, including Univ Old Member Dr Louise Isham (1996, Maths), who research and treat delusions.

Professor Daniel Freeman is a Professor of Clinical Psychology, MRC Senior Clinical Fellow, and Consultant Clinical Psychologist. His latest book The Stressed Sex: Uncovering the Truth about Men, Women, and Mental Health delves into the question of whether rates of psychological disorder differ for men and women? Dr Louise Isham studied maths before going into medicine and is now a Consultant Clinical Psychologist and NIHR Clinical Doctoral Research Fellow at Oxford.

A History of Delusions will be broadcast weekdays at 1.45pm on BBC Radio 4 from Monday 3 December to Friday 14 December. It will be available on BBC Sounds and can be downloaded from the BBC website.

Published: 28 November 2018

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