No stone left unturned
I feel a sense of despair as I observe many younger doctors rushing headlong into UK psychiatry, and I wonder, “Do they know what they’re in for?” But then I have to remind myself that for a sizeable proportion, this is driven by forced choices based on economic survival. Recruitment About 10 years ago I was persona non-grata in a debate about the RCPsych’s revamped at the time, recruitment drive. I lost – as is usually the case because the ...
The issue has surfaced – it is in the public domain – about concerns for the mental health of a US President. Doctors in the UK are not allowed to diagnose or speculate on diagnosis about any living person in the absence of therapeutic contract, clinical request for professional opinion, or other legitimate involvement (e.g. via the courts). There have been instances where political leaders’ physical or mental health has been a subject of public concern, raising questions about their ...
Hybristophilia is a phenomenon, where individuals, often women, develop strong affectionate or romantic feelings towards individuals incarcerated for serious crimes. It is a complex and multifaceted psychological condition that has garnered interest within both psychiatric and criminological domains. The concept of hybristophilia, initially defined by Dr John Money in 1986, began as a term encapsulating a sexual attraction towards individuals who have committed serious crimes. It is essential to note that the understanding of hybristophilia has evolved and can vary. ...
The recent events on the sentencing of Valdo Calocane have led to public outcries. Mr Coates’ son James (a victim) said that Calocane had “made a mockery of the system“, adding that “he has got away with murder“. I have no relationship to the victims, their families, Calocane or the legal proceedings. This exploration will go into the events, construct a timeline (that may be updated) and look into the medicolegal issues. The details on the partial defence of diminished ...
Description Herd instinct, a concept predominantly associated with animal behaviour, implies a tendency to conform to social norms or follow the actions of a larger group, often for self-preservation or to maintain social cohesion. When examining this concept in humans, it is essential to scrutinise it from both psychological and sociological perspectives, while also considering neurobiological underpinnings. The title of this post does not imply that the herd instinct explains everything about loneliness. The instinct is taken as a template ...
For this post and all others (past and present), by psychiatry I also mean mental health services. Whilst psychiatry is a medical discipline it sits within and is normally closely linked to other aspects of mental health services. Introduction In this post I explore how mental health services can learn from disaster management, mistakes, and failures across other industries. I will be thinking about what can be learned from the perspective of NHS psychiatric services. I often study many videos ...
Too often in psychiatry we are faced with the problem of tail risk. The basic idea is ‘low probability high impact‘ events. This commonly presents among relatively stable patients in contrast to patients in an acute phase of disturbance. Some patients may have an established pattern of only one or two short-lived periods of disturbance per year where they present risks of suicide, homicide or violence, or arson. In any of those short-lived blips it is possible that serious harm ...
Further to my recent post ‘Untangling a confused mess: motives and psychopathy‘, I dig deeper and extend further. This post does not mean that any organisation I know or have been connected to is Institutionally Psychopathic. I separate out dysfunctional organisational behaviours, then later in the post I bring them back under the umbrella of Institutional Psychopathy. In 2010 I coined the term Institutional Psychopathy. Evidence in screenshot below. At that time there were no publications containing the words together. ...
Who is a psychopath? The short answer to is NOBODY. How shocking will that appear to the general public who are programmed by social media, BigMedia and popular psychology websites? To learn more, you’d have to study from the facts and my reasoned opinions below. At first I will spend a few minutes demolishing the nonsense spouted by Raj Persaud. Then I will move into the concepts of motives, psychopath and psychopathy. I am not here to diagnose or psychoanalyse ...
Over the years I have come to appreciate that patients in psychiatric services very much value support. I’ve been wondering ‘What does support mean?‘ Hold on – I know that everybody knows support when they feel it. That would not inform me what aspects of support make it real or valid. Mental health workers and services without doubt need to provide support. Support can vary across various types of activities e.g. emotional support, advice, guidance, therapy etc. That does not ...