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Alfred Freeborn

@alfredfreeborn.bsky.social
308 followers 448 following 20 posts

Historian of Science and Medicine living in Berlin writing on Biomedicine and Psychosis. Lecturer at Bielefeld University, previously MPIWG, Humboldt, Cambridge.

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Alfred Freeborn @alfredfreeborn.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
Had a lot of fun at ESHS/HSS in Edinburgh last week, especially presenting on the history of schizophrenia panel with @slagstadk.bsky.social and @anaantic.bsky.social, sharing my ideas on the schizophrenic brain and CT as a moral machine. #ESHS-HSS
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Alfred Freeborn @alfredfreeborn.bsky.social · 21/05/2026
I met Eric at the Globalizing Schizophrenia conference I hosted in Berlin a while back - youtu.be/bOqIf0x6Rss?... - he's a lovely man and a fascinating speaker, look forward to listening to his podcast with Mad in America
youtu.be
Globalizing Schizophrenia: The History and Legacy of the WHO Studies of Schizophrenia
YouTube video by Max Planck Institute for the History of Science
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Hanna Lucia Worliczek @hworliczek.bsky.social · 13/05/2026
Interested in interviews & oral history in #HistSTM #HistMed #HPS? Then this special issue is for you! Research Interviews in the History of Science & Medicine–Reflections and New Directions, eds. @hworliczek.bsky.social & @alfredfreeborn.bsky.social onlinelibrary.wiley.com/toc/15222365... 1/7
Table of Contents of a journal issue. 
Heft 1/2026
Berichte zur Wissenschaftsgeschichte / History of Science and humanities.
Table of Contents
Special Issue: 
Research Interviews in the History of Science and Medicine—Reflections and New
Directions
Editors: Hanna Lucia Worliczek and Alfred Freeborn

Alfred Freeborn and Hanna Lucia Worliczek, Introduction: Research Interviews in the History of Science and Medicine—Reflections and New Directions.

Lara Keuck and Soraya de Chadarevian, Research Interviews in Historical Practice.

Rosanna Dent and Ana Carolina Vimieiro Gomes, Controlling the Field:Memory, Labor, and Ethics in Oral Histories of Brazilian Human Genetics.

Jesse Olszynko-Gryn, Anja Suter, Edmund Bolger & Birgit Nemec, Learning with Patient Campaigners about a German Drug Scandal.

Cameron Brinitzer, Reflections on Fieldwork around Europe.

Dmitriy Myelnikov, Where Do We Fit? Reflections on Research Interview Practice, Project Design, and Interpretation.

Ber. Wissenschaftsgesch. 49 (2026): 3 – 3, © 2026 Wiley-VCH GmbH 3
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Bernhard Leitner @bmleitner.bsky.social · 11/05/2026
Editor-in-Chief Eric Engstrom has recently announced a relaunch of the History of Psychiatry journal with a new title, scope, and look. Exciting news for anyone working in #histpsy #histmed #histsci #history Check out what's changed: journals.sagepub.com/home/hpy
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Alfred Freeborn @alfredfreeborn.bsky.social · 01/04/2026
I used archival case files to reconstruct histories of psychotic veterans denied disability pensions in post-WWII Britain; I argue that the idea of stress-induced schizophrenia, popularized later by anti-psychiatry, emerged in tribunals as part of a liberal critique of technocracy. #histmed #histsci
cambridge.org
Making invalidity fair: schizophrenia, medical uncertainty and the certification of war disability pensions in post-war Britain | BJHS Themes | Cambridge Core
Making invalidity fair: schizophrenia, medical uncertainty and the certification of war disability pensions in post-war Britain
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Alfred Freeborn @alfredfreeborn.bsky.social · 23/03/2026
Proud to have been part of a panel on decolonizing medical aid with Diana Nazzal, Anika König and Jesse Olszynko-Gryn. The event was a fundraiser to help Gazan medical students forced to study in Egypt pay their tuition fees, who in time will return and help rebuild its healthcare system #Gaza.
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Alfred Freeborn @alfredfreeborn.bsky.social · 20/03/2026
Pleasure to hear @davidolusoga.bsky.social and Santanu Das at opening of the new Triailleurs exhibition at the #HKW, really powerful takes on erased histories of colonial soldiers, legacies lost between eurocentric nationalism and post-colonial nation-building.
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Philipp Haueis @phaueis.eurosky.social · 17/03/2026
Academic events in Berlin (2/2): Book launch of „Biomedical Visions“ at ICI Berlin, organized by @alfredfreeborn.bsky.social and many others, with my Bielefeld colleague Lara Keuck amongst others!
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Alfred Freeborn @alfredfreeborn.bsky.social · 16/03/2026
BlueSky ist doch ok? Stabi statt Snapchat? #BlueSky #Facebook #Stabi
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Alfred Freeborn @alfredfreeborn.bsky.social · 14/03/2026
Looking for interesting reading on psychoanalysis and football (asking for a friend who's a Spurs fan). Just stumbled across Chris Oakley's Football Delirium (www.routledge.com/Football-Del...), but hungry for more. #psychoanalysis #football #spurs
routledge.com
Football Delirium
This book is a set of wonderfully subtle and free-wheeling interwoven stories about psychoanalysis and football, and what they might have to say to each other, arguing that football offers us the poss...
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Alfred Freeborn @alfredfreeborn.bsky.social · 06/03/2026
Biomedical Visions spotted in the wild (The Wellcome) by @frankiedytor.bsky.social! No time for irl books? Too busy on BlueSky for excursions to Euston Road? Treat yourself to the totally free open access version here: www.hatjecantz.de/products/830... #histmed #histsci
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Maryam Jamshidi @msjamshidi.bsky.social · 04/03/2026
We are solidly back to the days of "WE are the civilized, makers and beneficiaries of the rules, and THEY are the uncivilized, entitled to no protections" That mindset never really went away, some of just pretended it did. No denying it anymore
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Emily Webster, PhD, MSc @emilywebz.bsky.social · 03/03/2026
Interested in multispecies health? Why not come work with my excellent colleague Hannah Brown at Durham? durham.taleo.net/careersectio...
durham.taleo.net
Postdoctoral Research Associate
Click the link provided to see the complete job description.
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Alfred Freeborn @alfredfreeborn.bsky.social · 02/03/2026
"Biomedical technologies increasingly mediate and shape our subjective experience of illness, but biomedical knowledge cannot satisfy our subjective desires for total control of our bodies and their environments" Book Launch 12.03. Live stream available www.ici-berlin.org/events/biome...
ici-berlin.org
Biomedical Visions - ICI Berlin
Biomedical visualisations can validate patient experiences and perceptions empowering patients and convincing doctors in the search for a diagnosis, treatment, or cure. However, they are often decepti...
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Rebecca Jackson, PhD @beccajackson.bsky.social · 02/03/2026
Excited to host the Measurement Heretics Workshop: Being Meaning and Measuring Well on March 11-13, at the Institute for Medical Humanities, Durham University. The keynote will be hybrid so register for this free event! @durhamimh.bsky.social #histsci #histmed #hps #philsci #medhums #histtech #sts
medhumsplatform.org
Measurement Heretics Workshop: Being, Meaning, and Measuring Well
This 3-day workshop brings together international & interdisciplinary perspectives to guide the future of ethical, meaningful health data.
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Alfred Freeborn @alfredfreeborn.bsky.social · 29/01/2026
Bielefelder Schneemann
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Alfred Freeborn @alfredfreeborn.bsky.social · 11/01/2026
Buoy is cold. Plötzensee, Berlin.
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Max Planck Institute for the History of Science @mpiwg.bsky.social · 30/10/2025
📗 New #OpenAccess volume edited by Elizabeth Hughes & Alfred Freeborn: "Biomedical Visions" brings together epistemology, medicine, and art to understand what biomedicine looks like and how we might view it differently in the past and future. 🔗 bit.ly/4nHBZ #HistSci #HistArt
The image shows an X-ray of a skull against a black background. Inside the image of the skull is an image of an open hand, facing the viewer with slightly shaded palms. The word "You" outlines the skull and forms a border around the suggested eye sockets. To the left of the skull is written: "Edited by Elizabeth W. Hughes and Alfred Freeborn." In the centre of the lower part of the image is the name of the publisher, "HATJE CANTZ".
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Alfred Freeborn @alfredfreeborn.bsky.social · 22/10/2025
Biomedical Visions is now available open access, have a look: www.hatjecantz.com/collections/...
hatjecantz.com
Biomedical Visions
Wir leben heute in einem Zeitalter der biomedizinischen Visionen. Die Entzauberung des Körpers durch Visualisierungstechnologien scheint kein Ende zu nehmen, und das Versprechen von Gesundheit ist unw...
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Benoît Majerus @majben.bsky.social · 28/08/2025
@alfredfreeborn.bsky.social kicks off the discussion by reflecting on a conference he organized last year www.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/event/global... #autoreflexivity #eahmh #who #schizophrenia
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Hanna Lucia Worliczek @hworliczek.bsky.social · 07/07/2025
#HPS #HistMed
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Eleonora Marocchini, PhD @marocchini.bsky.social · 25/06/2025
It was super interesting to hear from Nic Cottone, @alfredfreeborn.bsky.social and Lisa Schmidt-Herzog about their ideas of alienation, masking, and the need for an open epistemology to avoid essentialism in the neurodiversity movement!
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Max Planck Institute for the History of Science @mpiwg.bsky.social · 23/04/2025
Our Spring Publications Slam in pictures 🌷📚 Congrats on your new books and articles Thomas Turnbull, Razieh-Sadat Mousavi, Wilko Graf von Hardenberg, Jacob Schmidt-Madsen, Alfred Freeborn, Vera Dorofeeva-Lichtmann, Cameron Brinitzer and Dora Vargha! Learn more 👉 bitly.cx/n7aF #HistSci #EnvHist
Collage of photos of the presenting scholars behind the microphone stand. From the top left to the bottom right: Esther Chen, Thomas Turnbull, Razieh-Sadat Mousavi, Wilko Graf von Hardenberg, Jacob Schmidt-Madsen, Alfred Freeborn, Vera Dorofeeva-Lichtmann, Cameron Brinitzer, and Dora Vargha. Source: Anna Ruhnow, MPIWG 2025.
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ERC project RESCALE @erc-rescale.bsky.social · 17/01/2025
I’m hiring a postdoctoral fellow for 3 years to work on the philosophy of physics at the Munich Center for Mathematical Philosophy (MCMP), LMU Munich (deadline: February 23, 2025). More information below. @lmu-mcmp.bsky.social @lmuphilosophy.bsky.social
job-portal.lmu.de
Postdoctoral Researcher (m/f/x)
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Max Planck Institute for the History of Science @mpiwg.bsky.social · 05/03/2025
Call for applications! Dept. II ("Knowledge Systems and Collective Life") seeks to appoint a Postdoctoral Scholar proficient in #OralHistory and #DigitalHumanities to join the CORAL (Commoning Oral Histories of Knowledge) project 💬 🗓 Deadline: April 30, 2025 🔗 bit.ly/4eDRUq4 #HistSci #AcademicSky
"Max Planck History of Science—Career: We’re hiring!“ 
top right: MPIWG main building backyard. Picture by Setform 2017. 
bottom right: MPIWG library. Picture by Setform 2017.
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Oxford Centre for the History of Childhood @histchildoxford.bsky.social · 30/01/2025
Excited to post the CfP for our 2025 History of Childhood Colloquium on ‘Becoming Human? Childhood, Development & the Human Sciences’. We welcome papers from any discipline or prof background & career stage; keynotes from @lauratisdall.bsky.social Bonnie Evans & Sally Shuttleworth; deadline 07/03/25
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Alfred Freeborn @alfredfreeborn.bsky.social · 31/01/2025
How? Riah just joined the platform, turns out she's already famous. For any Berlin people, I would recommend her new show at the Gorki, it's a lot of really camp fun and, unlike the critics, I loved the didactic anti-racism.
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Alfred Freeborn @alfredfreeborn.bsky.social · 30/01/2025
It's been a while since I did a social media post, got that mildly excited feeling and skin tingles. Happy to share my first (single-authored) publication with the BlueSky world! It won a prize so definitely skim-read the abstract at least: journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....
journals.sagepub.com
Testing psychiatrists to diagnose schizophrenia: Crisis, consensus, and computers in post-war psychiatry - Alfred Freeborn, 2025
This article offers a new reading of the US–UK Diagnostic Project (1965–75), a series of influential collaborative studies that tested the ability of psychiatri...
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Alfred Freeborn @alfredfreeborn.bsky.social · 17/10/2023
Berlin: a double portrait
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Alfred Freeborn @alfredfreeborn.bsky.social · 16/10/2023
First autumnal swim at Flughafensee on the weekend.
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