Professor Catherine Robinson, Dr Anne Krayer and I have been in Mysuru for a week now. It has been hard work. We have helped to organise a ‘master trainer’ event over two days, the first element in our project funded by the Tropical Health Education Trust. The attendance was larger than we expected, about 25 […]
Slow rain, long time coming
I am a reluctant traveller, but I enjoy coming to India. I dislike being away from my own bed, my guitars and my wife. Sightseeing holidays hold no appeal. Nonetheless, it would be grossly misleading to suggest that visiting Karnataka is an ordeal in any way. This is my fifth trip, and the thing that […]
The sacred and the profane
I have no religion. As a young man, my opposition to religion was strident, but I have mellowed in this respect (actually, more or less everything I believed as a young man was stridently expressed). These days I do not really care what other people believe, so long as they do not impose it on […]
Dr Kevin White
On Saturday morning, a sad Dr Sue Ruben phoned to let me know that our old friend and mentor Kevin White had died. He was 77 years old. Kevin retired from full time practice in 1993, but I have yet to come across anyone who could match his clinical skills. Contrary to popular opinion, there […]
The Psychiatrist’s Bible
The thing about being a doctor is that it is more than just a job title. The day you qualify, there is an ontological shift. You feel different to how you did before and people treat you differently. You can never stop being a doctor: look at Dr David Owen, Dr Graham Garden and Dr […]
We really do want our ball back
The entire political establishment, including its commentariat wing, are in a frenzy. The Labour Party has sent out ballot papers and the imminent possibility of Jeremy Corbyn being elected leader is construed as the end of political life as we know it or, at the very least, doom for the Party itself. Senior Party figures […]
The wrong life
Sir Simon Wessely is President of the Royal College of Psychiatrists. Together with Greg Smith, who works for the College, he wrote this excellent article about proposals to eliminate the payment of welfare benefits to fat people and people with alcohol problems. It is suggested that they will have their benefits withdrawn if they don’t […]
Memory of a free festival
The counter culture is extinct. Festivals are no longer unruly affairs featuring the Edgar Broughton Band on the back of a truck performing Out Demons Out. They are organised by the local council to encourage recycling or they’re sponsored by the National Licensed Victuallers Association to support lager consumption. Drugs went mainstream in the 1980s […]
In Athens and Detroit, there’s revolution in the air
Almost 20 years ago, I attended a meeting at the Department of Health in London and found that I was seated next to the late Professor Robert Kendall, at that time President of the Royal College of Psychiatrists. I didn’t really know him. He cut a rather austere, cerebral figure. He was friendly, but not […]
Several interesting things to do in Birmingham on a Wednesday
I go to a lot of conferences these days, most often as a speaker. This is a function of age and job description. It is unfortunate that I hate travelling. It might have been wise to take this into account before I changed from a relatively static NHS role to more mobile academic one, about […]