Carnegie Lecture returns to Aberdeen to consider how the meanings we attach to symptoms can shape both illness and recovery.
Do the stories we tell ourselves about our health have the power to make us sick and to aid recovery?
Dr Suzanne O’Sullivan, consultant neurologist and multi-award-winning author, will consider the ways in which diagnosis can change the relationship with our bodies when she visits Aberdeen to deliver the 2026 Carnegie Lecture as part of the University of Aberdeen’s Founders’ Week celebrations.
Her free public lecture on Wednesday 11 February at the Cowdray Hall, Aberdeen Art Gallery, will examine how the narratives we create about our health and the meanings we attach to our symptoms can shape both vulnerability to illness and the potential for healing.
Dr O’Sullivan, a consultant neurologist since 2004, has spent her career investigating complex epilepsy and psychogenic disorders, first at The Royal London Hospital and now at The National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery and the Epilepsy Society.
Her award‑winning writing has brought her expertise to a global audience. Her debut, It’s All in Your Head, won both the Wellcome Book Prize and the Royal Society of Biology Book Prize; The Sleeping Beauties was shortlisted for the Royal Society Science Book Prize; and her most recent book, The Age of Diagnosis (2025), became an international bestseller. Originally from Dublin, she is widely recognised for her ability to illuminate the intricate relationship between mind, body and society.
In her Aberdeen lecture, Dr O’Sullivan will examine how diagnosis - often sought for clarity, validation or reassurance - can profoundly shape a person’s relationship with their body. She argues that as medical tests become increasingly sensitive and as genetic screening expands our ability to predict future disease, it is more important than ever to understand that a diagnosis is not a neutral event. Labels that initially feel helpful can also carry unintended consequences.
Her talk will be structured around three patient stories. The first illustrates what overdiagnosis truly means and how a label can alter someone’s sense of self to their detriment. The second focuses on a patient given neurodevelopmental diagnoses, showing how such labels can both support and constrain. The final story highlights the healing power of narrative itself, encouraging us to choose stories that emphasise capability and possibility rather than limitation.
Dr O’Sullivan will invite the audience to reflect on when a diagnosis is necessary - and when the hope of an open future may be the more powerful in a panel discussion hosted by Professor Mirela Delibegovic,Regius Chair of Physiology at the University of Aberdeen.
The lecture forms part of the University of Aberdeen’s 2026 Founders’ Week, a celebration of the institution’s 531‑year history.
The week offers an opportunity to reflect on the University’s enduring impact and the generosity of benefactors whose support has shaped its past and future.
Dr O’Sullivan’s visit is part of the Andrew Carnegie Lecture series, a ten‑year programme of public talks hosted by Scotland’s ancient universities - Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Glasgow and St Andrews. Funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York to mark its centenary, the series brings influential thinkers to Scottish audiences to engage with some of the most pressing questions of our time.
Professor Delibegovic said: “The 2026 Carnegie Lecture promises to be a thought‑provoking highlight of Founders’ Week, inviting the public to consider how the narratives we embrace about our health can shape our lives in profound and unexpected ways.
“Dr O’Sullivan’s work has transformed public understanding of the mind–body connection, and we are delighted to welcome her to Aberdeen to share her insights with our community as part of Founders’ Week.”
Book your place for the Carnegie lecture here.