Royal Edinburgh Hospital Bicentenary Lecture Series 2012-13

The Royal Edinburgh Hospital is celebrating its bicentenary in June 2013. To commemorate 200 years of pioneering mental health care provision, NHS Lothian, with the support of the Wellcome Trust and the Scottish Government, has commissioned an eight-part lecture series to illuminate aspects of the rich and diverse history of the Hospital from the early-19th century to the present day.

Lothian Health Services Archive has helped organise the series, and several of the speakers have drawn on our collections to inform and illustrate their lectures. We have also launched an archive appeal to run in conjunction with the series.

The lectures are free but tickets for most of them must be reserved in advance. We're expecting the series to be popular so please book early to avoid disappointment.

For full details of the eight lectures and for booking arrangements, please click here.

Lecture 1: Keynote lecture and reception. 3 October 2012

Professor Andrew Scull: 'Madness confined'

Lecture 2: 14 November 2012

Mr John Burnett: 'Sport, health and the Royal Edinburgh Hospital'

Lecture 3: 12 December 2012

Dr Allan Beveridge: 'Voices of the Mad: patients' letters from the Royal Edinburgh Hospital, 1873 - 1908'

Lecture 4: 13 February 2013

Dr Gayle Davis: 'The female malady? The troubled relationship between psychiatry and gender'

Lecture 5: 13 March 2013

Dr Maureen Park: 'Hungry lions, kangaroos and bruised reeds: patient art at the Royal Edinburgh Hospital in the 19th century'

Lecture 6: 10 April 2013

Professor Chris Freeman: 'From electric shocks to virtual reality: the treatment of soldiers after battle'

Lecture 7: 8 May 2013

Dr SP Sashidharan: 'Psychiatry and Empire'

Lecture 8: 4 June 2013

Professor Stephen Lawrie: 'The rise and rise of scientific psychiatry in Edinburgh'

(Image on homepage courtesy of The Scotsman, Johnston Publishing Ltd.)