Nina Gutin, Ph.D., will invite attendees to explore the complexities and philosophical dimensions of suicide, and to challenge conventional perspectives on its understanding, assessment and treatment. Drawing from her extensive clinical work and personal perspectives, she will explore how language, historical and societal attitudes around suicide may shape the experiences of those with suicidal experiences as well as those who aim to support and treat them.

Dr. Gutin will begin by referencing thinkers like Camus, Nietzsche, and Shakespeare, whose perspectives suggest that contemplating suicide can be an integral, perhaps even beneficial aspect of the human condition. She will contrast this with conventional and clinical discourse around suicide, often framed in terms of the “Biomedical Model” and individual pathology, and will detail how this contemporary discourse often contains implicit moral judgment and stigma directed towards those with suicidal experiences. Additionally, she will highlight how the “one size fits all” focus on individual pathology overlooks significant social and contextual factors such as trauma, discrimination, economic and other inequities which have been shown to drive and shape suicidal experiences.

Dr. Gutin will address the well-documented biases and discomfort many clinicians bear towards suicidal patients, the overreliance on assessment checklists (which have very poor predictive reliability) and conventional liability-based treatments, particularly involuntary hospitalization. In combination, these are paradoxically likely to exacerbate the distress of suicidal individuals, increase their sense of hopelessness and alienation, reduce trust of the mental health system and ultimately increases their risk of suicide!

Advocating for a broader understanding of suicidal experiences, Dr. Gutin will call for shifts in treatment approaches that align with what individuals with lived experiences of suicide find helpful: compassionate, non-judgmental support that respects their experiences, autonomy and dignity.

Times of political crisis take a toll on human minds and, especially, mental health. During and after the global pandemic, young people in particular experienced impaired well-being and various mental health issues. Even before the pandemic, eco-related anxieties were affecting young people, adding to their mental load and raising questions about how to support their capacity to act.

However, little research addresses young people's views on themselves in their everyday lives in such an open way that their own perspectives and perceived obstacles are revealed, rather than framing problems and challenges from an adult standpoint. Consequently, our understanding of how they currently view their lives and how the multiple crises are reflected in this view is limited.

In our study with children’s drawings, we asked primary school children in Northern Germany in 2025 to create drawings in response to the prompt “This is my life”.

Using reconstructive picture analysis, we aim to reconstruct the inherent socio-cultural narratives and power relations that children draw on when creating their drawings, including prevailing discourses on childhood and the Western self. On an explicit level, little in the drawings recalls the dark times in which they were created. On an implicit level, however, it is precisely the omission of problems and challenges that raises questions, which we will discuss to explore potential avenues for supporting children’s well-being and agency.

The concept of relational uncertainty continues to receive cross-disciplinary attention with scholarship usually relying on traditional psychological theory to inform developments. In this regard, theories range from assumptions involving internalised cognition to dualistic person-in-the-world (e.g., constructivist) accounts to explain actions taking place. This presentation offers a different theoretical approach to understanding relational uncertainty, one enabled by resonant pluralism. To elaborate, the discussion situates these ideas in a project undertaken in government-run schools in Melbourne, Australia. The research team were contracted by the State Department of Education to develop a suite of resources for school leaders and teachers to assist their engagement with students of African heritage. In the process of developing the resources, school-based focus groups were conducted separately with adults and children. From those conversations, it was apparent an affective atmosphere regularly shrouded teacher-student relationships arising from experiences of cultural or racial uncertainty. In many instances teachers reported that uncertainty would initially immobilise their ability to engage with students and then, having had a moment to consider their response, they would choose to do nothing rather than act in a manner which might be perceived to be offensive or inappropriate. As an alternative to the psychologism that dominates everyday relational accounts, the prospect of resonant pluralism is introduced. It is argued that in having optional entry points to understanding relational action, uncertainty may potentially shift from being an enigmatic obstacle to a medium for inclusion.