TEDxSalford

Speaker Announcement – Eleanor Longden

Eleanor Longden is a research psychologist known for overcoming schizophrenia, earning the highest first class honours degree ever awarded at The University of Leeds, and giving a fascinating TED talk, “The Voices In My Head.” The video went online earlier this month, and has already had over 540,000 views. Eleanor is also a lecturer, author and public speaker, and is also the latest speaker to be announced for TEDxSalford 3.0 event, on November 10^th at The Lowry, Salford Quays.

Eleanor Longden was just an ordinary student, swimming in the rich waters of education and sowing the seeds for her future successes. However, something happened that she could never have prepared for – schizophrenia. It began with the appearance of a single, neutral voice that calmly narrated in the third person what Eleanor was doing.

“She’s going to a lecture”

After spending years in the psychiatric system,drugged and discarded from a system that didn’t know how to help her, Eleanor has become a beacon of success, having achieved the British Psychological Society Undergraduate Award and graduated from the University of Leeds with the highest first class degree ever granted to a psychology student. She went further and earned an MSc in Health Psychology, to which Eleanor would tell you herself, “isn’t bad for mad woman”.

Eleanor has worked in the NHS for the early intervention team in psychosis but left the position in order to study for her PhD. She also lectures and writes about recovery related trauma and has published a book called “Learning from the voices in my head”. She is also a part of Intervoice, the organizational body of the hearing voices movement.

Eleanor’s story is so inspiring because she has successfully challenged and overcome the hegemonic and stereotypical views of schizophrenia from the clinicians and is living proof that those with schizophrenia can achieve, be successful and most importantly: be happy.

You can read an interview with Eleanor by journalist and TED speaker Jon Ronson at The Guardian, and see the rest of this year’s TEDxSalford line-up at our speakers page.