Criminal Intent and Responsibility: Exploring Conscious and Unconscious Motivation

Criminal Intent and Responsibility: Neuro Scinentifc Exploration of Conscious and Unconscious Motivation

This conference will explore the subtle interface between conscious and unconscious motivation with respect to criminal intent and behaviour. While many neuroscientists stress the role of neurochemicals in the brain as a key driver of behaviour, our legal system is based on the ethical notion of personal responsibility, albeit to different degrees. This sets up an interesting tension between differing accounts of behaviour and motivation and poses the intriguing question: to what extent are we really responsible for our actions? This question will be examined by our panel of distinguished speakers from four different angles: social psychology, clinical hypnosis, neuroscience and law. The resulting discussion will give us a clearer and probably more complex understanding of the relationship between inner psychological and outer social factors. This will have significant implications in all four of the fields we will be covering.

Venue: Royal Society of Medicine, 1 Wimpole Street, London, W1G 0AE            23 October 2010 9am – 6pm

£75 for SMN members and RSM members

£85 for non-members

View pdf leaflet including booking form