Young people across the world are currently experiencing unprecedented rates of mental illness and incapacitation attributable in no small way to neoliberal regimes of bio-politics which penetrate into the deepest layers of the self/mind.

Once trapped within a system that demands constant self-optimization according to the standards of the majoritarian order, peoples’ lives have become increasingly debilitated through depression and related psychic illnesses, and dependent on a model of mental health that primarily serves the agendas of drug companies and conventional medicine.

This is the second in a series of workshops bringing together scholars and practitioners to explore alternative models of treatment and well being arising from ‘heritage knowledge systems’.

Heritage systems of knowledge and healing refer to venerable traditions of spirituality which inherit and transmit images of thought capable of challenging the kind of world views that have given rise to the “bio-politics of debilitation” which maims young and old alike.

The workshop has two interlinked objectives. On the one hand presenters will examine limitations of current models of mental health and the kind of interventions being offered particularly in view of the burgeoning current crisis of debilitation in young people. On the other hand presenters are invited to present and explore ‘heritage’ knowledge systems drawn from Buddhist, Judaic, Hindu, Christian, Sikh, indigenous and other traditions capable of providing interventions designed for cultivating wellness and
re-capacitating bodies and minds subject to debilitation. Presenters will be expected to link these two objectives according to their research perspectives.

By looking at experiential needs and development of spiritual techniques, the workshop will try to address the “mental” needs of those most vulnerable to contemporary neoliberal regimes