24th Annual Roland D. Pinkham, M.D. Basic Science Lectureship

Friday, November 19, 2010 | Glaser Auditorium, Swedish Medical Center/First Hill

Questions concerning human nature and identity lie at the core of the biological sciences. How is our daily function guided by the distinctions we make between “me” and “not-me” at molecular, cellular, immunologic, interpersonal and group levels? The overlap between social values and cultural practices, on the one hand, and the realities offered by biology, on the other hand, often present a mosaic of different kinds of knowledge and experience. How might we consider human beings as components of their environment versus individual, autonomous units?

This year’s Pinkham Symposium will address biological, psychological and historical aspects of the self and how such notions have guided, as well as sometimes misled us. In the morning we will look at cultural notions of the self and how immunology has used the self/non-self paradigm with both productive and limiting effects. Recent findings concerning autoimmunity and immune surveillance, coupled to revised notions of immune tolerance and the mircobiome of gut flora, have required revision of the self/ non-self model that has dominated modern immunology.

Our afternoon session will focus on the social and reflective self, with an overview of the formation of personal identity, how minds are shaped in child and adult development, and how neuropsychiatric disorders illuminate current notions of selfhood. The day will close with a stimulating multidisciplinary overview and discussion of these issues.