It is a truism to say that the human mind is one of the most complex and extraordinary features of our existence. When it works there is a seamless and unobtrusive functioning system that allows us to effortlessly use language, to think and plan for the future and problem-solve, to sense and perceive objects in the world, and to form and maintain relationships.

In severe psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia and bipolar mood disorder, particularly in the psychoses, the normal well executed functioning of the mind is compromised. The most important of these aberrations are delusions and hallucinations. 

In this Garden Talk, Femi Oyebode, will explain and describe what mean when we talk about delusions and hallucinations, and will bring the subjective experience of having a psychological disorder to life by sharing examples from his decades of clinical practice and from literature. He will also discuss what we understand the origins of these abnormal experiences to be. Going deeper, Femi will consider whether delusions are different from ordinary beliefs and if hallucinations just part of the normal repertoire of experiences that we all have?