Revitalised Whiffler Theatre once again available for community use

Norwich City Council news.

I’ve just paid to take me up to 2 years of being a member of a gym with a personal trainer once a month. Who’d have thought that the aches and pains of getting older would’ve brought me to this? I never had any sporting skills and I’ve never really been fit in my life. I’m told going to the gym is good for me.

The evolution of the Naked Ape

I’m reminded of my teenage annotated copy of The Naked Ape by the death of its author, Desmond Morris (see The Times obituary). Archive on 4 broadcast a programme entitled ‘The evolution of the Naked Ape’ just before he died.

Visiting the hub of the universe

“Boston State-House is the hub of the solar system. You couldn't pry that out of a Boston man, if you had the tire of all creation straightened out for a crowbar.” Oliver Wendell Holmes The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table 1858

“Hear us”- State House Women’s Leadership Project 

“I come to present the strong claims of suffering humanity. I come to place before the Legislature of Massachusetts the condition of the miserable, the desolate, the outcast. I come as the advocate of helpless, forgotten, insane, and idiotic men and women; of beings sunk to a condition from which the most unconcerned would start with real horror; of beings wretched in our prisons, and more wretched in our almshouses”. Memorial to the legislature of Massachusetts 1843

“There is nothing men will not do, there is nothing they have not done, to recover their health and save their lives. They have submitted to be half-drowned in water, and half-choked with gases, to be buried up to their chins in earth, to be seared with hot irons like galley-slaves, to be crimped with knives, like cod-fish, to have needles thrust into their flesh, and bonfires kindled on their skin, to swallow all sorts of abominations, and to pay for all this, as if to be singed and scalded were a costly privilege, as if blisters were a blessing, and leeches were a luxury. What more can be asked to prove their honesty and sincerity?” Oliver Wendell Holmes [A valedictory address delivered to the graduating class of the Bellevue Hospital College] (1871). 

Ashes in Australia

The Ashes series has started (with 19 wickets falling on first day - see summary). Playing the Ashes series in Australia has a particular significance because it was on the 1882-3 tour in Australia that England first tried to regain the Ashes after English cricket had ‘died’ by losing for the first time to Australia at the Oval earlier in 1882 (see Wikipedia entry). 

I got carried away in the Covid period by posting an entry on this blog for each day of the first two tests of the last Ashes series in Australia (see previous post for last in the string). But enthusiasm for posting withered away with the continued poor England results. This situation eventually led to the Bazball revival over recent years. I won’t repeat my posting frenzy but hope that England can win in Australia for only the second time this century.

No longer part of institutional psychiatry

Following my voluntary erasure from the GMC register (see previous post) I have cancelled my membership of the Royal College of Psychiatrists (RCPsych). I first expressed an interest in wanting to be a psychiatrist when asked what I wanted to do at University. In my naivety, I didn’t even know that I would need to train in medicine. Despite a medical student essay arguing that psychiatry should be non-medical, I came to accept that psychiatry is a medical speciality, a view with which not all members of the Critical Psychiatry Network (CPN) agree. 

Still, as a founding member of CPN, I’ve had my problems with institutional psychiatry. As I wrote in my first book chapter, “[T]here is an orthodox medical approach to the problems of interpreting and treating mental disorders”. I have been seen as unorthodox and in need of retraining. My efforts to change psychiatry have not been successful (see eg. previous post). The College controls training and fails to deal with its institutional corruption (see eg. post on my Thinking Differently About Mental Health blog). No longer needing to be a RCPsych member as I’m now retired clinically,  I can manage without the connection to the College. If the College ever genuinely becomes interested in reform I may rejoin.

The Rothesay 2025 county championship is complete. Ok, so Surrey are only runners up, but what do I do for the other half of the year?

No longer registered as a doctor

I have voluntarily erased myself from the GMC register (see my GMC entry). As I said in a previous post, when I first qualified I thought I would be able to practise medicine for life. Not sure, anyway, I can now listen easily enough to patients, which psychiatrists should be able to do, with my current level of senile deafness, even with hearing aids! I seem to have finally accepted I am fully retired, in the sense that I do not intend to return to paid work, having flirted with the idea of going back part-time, even re-acquiring my licence to practice last year but not being able to find any such work.

Working class aspirations

Despite my predominantly working class origins, I gained access to higher education at Trinity College Cambridge (see eg. previous post). My mother’s origins were working class; my father’s half working class. His mother (my grandmother) was the daughter of a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) who travelled by pony and trap from his home in Boxted to Colchester station to take the steam train to work in the Patent Office in London.

I benefitted from the expansion of higher education by the Wilson government and my mother’s encouragement of my ability to excel at school. Social class still affects social standing and identity.

Being a founding member of the Critical Psychiatry Network

The Critical Psychiatry Network (CPN), of which I am a founding member, was formed in 1999 (see eg. my article). The group was brought together by Pat Bracken and Phil Thomas (see eg. their guest post on my Thinking Differently about Mental Health blog). Joanna Moncrieff, who has been co-chair since CPN’s beginning, had formed a Critical Psychiatry group as a trainee at the Institute of Psychiatry (see her interview with Awais Aftab). 

I came to my critical position having given up my medical training for 8 years between pre-clinical and clinical training (see my Mad in America radio interview). I completed my psychiatric training as a lecturer at Sheffield University, where Alec Jenner was professor of psychiatry (see another past post). He had been a biomedical psychiatrist, although always retaining an interest in philosophy (see yet another past post), having been motivated to find the biochemical explanation for manic-depressive illness (see eg. his book chapter). His research unit lost its funding from the Medical Research Council, and he became interested in Italian democratic psychiatry (see eg. past post), becoming a friend of Franca Ongaro Basaglia, wife of Franco Basaglia. She represented the interests of the mentally ill in the Italian Senate.

I had started my critical psychiatry website (initially called the anti-psychiatry website - see eg. past post), so therefore welcomed the formation of the Critical Psychiatry Network. I organised three CPN annual conferences, leading to my edited Critical Psychiatry book (see eg. past post). I started my critical psychiatry blog (now called Thinking Differently about Mental Health and before that Relational Psychiatry - see past post) over sixteen years ago (see another past post).

My interview with Awais Aftab sums up my views about psychiatry (see past post). As I say in that interview, there is little evidence that critical psychiatry has really changed psychiatry (see eg. another past post). The difficulty of coping with indoctrination in psychiatric training has been compounded by the dysfunction and fragmentation of services. But psychiatry does need people who are prepared to lead the necessary change. I think that was how some of us saw the foundation of CPN but maybe we now need people to follow through on those intentions. 

Membership

My parents met at Eld Lane Baptist church, Colchester, as did my grandparents on my father’s side. I was baptised into the Baptist Church at Beechon Grove, Watford. But I gave up my Christian faith after University, which included a year in my Cambridge Tripos in Religious Studies (see eg. previous post). 

Nonetheless the membership of the Church provided an identity which it was difficult to give up. And the mystery of life which creates religion of course remains the same. I have tried to apply those limits to our knowledge to psychiatry, even though mainstream psychiatry promotes a wishful thinking to solutions to mental health problems (see eg. my Thinking Differently about Mental Health blog).

No longer a member of the Church of my origins, although recognising the value of social membership, I have been thinking about my current memberships. In retirement I have had time to become a member at the Oval (see eg. previous post). As a Watford grammar school boy, my membership of Trinity College, Cambridge, remains valuable (see eg. another previous post). I am still a member of the mental health Trust that I worked for despite its difficulties over recent years, from which it seems to be recovering (see eg. yet another previous post). I have always been motivated by the rights of people with mental health problems when I was working, as is Mind, of which I am also a member (see eg. see post on my Thinking Differently about Mental Health blog).

Gull Wing bridge

The Gull Wing bridge in Lowestoft opened last September (see Suffolk County Council post). I saw it today on my visit to Lowestoft, where I used to work (see eg. previous post).

A symbol of positive change for Lowestoft.

Defending freedom of speech

I ended a previous post with the following sentence, “How one separates those that are speaking from the position of parrhesia or manipulating 'freedom to speak out' for their own ends is not easy”. Commitment to principles and their expression can create negative consequences and opposition. As Wikipedia says (see entry), exercising the right to free speech carries special duties and responsibilities. It may therefore be subject to certain restrictions when necessary for respect of the rights or reputation of others or for the protection of national security or public order, or of public health or morals.

Donald Trump has recently signed an executive order that is entitled 'Restoring freedom of speech and ending federal censorship'. Having experienced an ideological attack myself on my views about psychiatry (see eg, my BMJ letter) I agree that freedom of speech should not be manipulated for ideological reasons. But free speech can't be about having the right to say whatever one wants. In fact, Trump could be said to be using the promotion of free speech for his own ideological ends. 

Governments clearly have a right to engage with social media companies about controversial content, as has been confirmed by the US Supreme Court (see article). Although I have exercised my right to block Elon Musk on X, very few people probably do. I used to try not to be oversensitive about blocking people but now tend to do so with those that seem to be promoting violence, whereas Trump has pardoned violent Jan 6 offenders.

Places I have lived

Colchester

Edware

Toronto

Watford/Rickmansworth

Cambridge

London

Lancaster

Preston

Sheffield

Norwich

Where next?

And second home in Wenhaston, Suffolk

Can you spot the crazed creepy narcissistic billionaire determined to destroy democracy?

(as asked by Private Eye)

Not protecting oneself in the pursuit of truth

I mentioned Foucault’s 1983 lectures devoted to the study of the Greek notion of parrhesia in a recent post on my Thinking Differently About Mental Health blog. This built on the recent post on this blog about truth-telling in psychiatry. In its positive sense, parrhesia is a virtuous personal attitude and quality to speak the truth boldly. The trouble is that there is a risk in being this kind of person, because speaking the truth may cause hurt or anger leading to retaliation, including scapegoating. 

I have experienced this in the workplace, as I have mentioned previously (see eg. previous post). Although I survived these experiences, they did leave their scars. They caused considerable stress, not least for my family as well as myself. It's no wonder that people find it easier not to challenge authority, even if it is leading people down the wrong road.  Of course the trouble is despots and tyrants survive on that fear. Even people who are not necessarily despots or tyrants can be more interested in maintaining the organisation rather than facing up to the truth (see eg. another previous post).

People may now be encouraged to speak out, for example in the NHS to improve care (see eg. previous post). Wes Streeting, current Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, may have finally realised that the Care Quality Commission, charged with regulating health and social care providers, is not fit for purpose (see eg. BBC report). It may be important for the Care Quality Commssion to remember its history (see eg. previous post). But freedom to speak out can be exploited by people using the facility for their own ends, eg. to target people they don't like. How one separates those that are speaking from the position of parrhesia or manipulating 'freedom to speak out' for their own ends is not easy.

Religious motivation in Middle East conflict

Not all Muslims agree with the Supreme Leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (see Wikipedia entry about the Supreme Leader), who led last Friday prayers for the first time in years, has called for pan-Muslim unity against Israel and the United States (see The New York Times article). He has religious reasons for promoting his dangerous views which can encourage killing and destruction amongst his adherents. Denunciation of terrorism does not address his religious motivation. He desires a form of religious politics free from the taint of Western culture.

Religion still matters to many people round the world. This element cannot be ignored in current Middle East conflict.