Category: Mental Illness

Quarks, Quasars and the Mind – Stranger Than We Suppose

Originally published in Psychology Today, 9th May 2017. The following is a modified transcript of a presentation I gave at the Royal Australian & New Zealand College of Psychiatry Annual Congress held in Adelaide, May 2017. I have included some references via hyperlinks, however the content is generally indebted to inspiration from Richard Dawkins’ TED talk “Why the Universe Seems…

Read More

The Self Illusion and Psychotherapy

Originally published in Psychology Today on March 21st, 2017. One of the great privileges of working in psychiatry currently is witnessing the amazing progress of so-called ‘biological psychiatry’. Advances in neurosciences and brain imaging are providing us with closer and closer glimpses of the basis of psychopathology. But for some this reductionism can lead psychiatry…

Read More

Why We Should Stop Avoiding the Word “Patient” in Psychiatry

Published in Psychology Today on 23rd August 2016. “My first memorable experience of psychiatry as a medical student was not what I expected. Rather than my fumbling interactions with psychotic patients, or witnessing electroconvulsive therapy first-hand, I was struck by repeatedly hearing words that had me wondering whether I was interning for a law firm: “consumer” and “client.” To my…

Read More

Bigotry Against the Mentally Ill Cannot Solve Bigotry Against Muslims

*Originally published in Psychology Today. Republished in The Daily Banter. – “Orlando may be strongest example yet showing how mental illness is ignored as factor when mass shooter is non-white” – Glen Greenwald after Orlando shootings. – “Every country has homophobia and mental illness. Not every country has guns.” – Gary Younge, Editor-at-large for The Guardian,…

Read More