The dreadful murder of Jo Cox has left me pondering the fragility of goodness. Let’s not get bogged down in trying to define it, whether goodness is a ‘thing’ in itself, a metaphysical entity, or[…]

Forty-three years ago I was a junior doctor halfway through my pre-registration year. It was one of the most difficult times of my life. After qualifying in medicine in Manchester in 1972, like all doctors[…]

Of all tyrranies, a tyrrany sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. C. S. Lewis, God in the Dock This is the English version of a paper originally translated[…]

A paper just published in British Journal of Psychiatry Open has met with criticism and anger in some quarters. The paper, co-authored by Sebastião Viola and Joanna Moncrieff, prominent members of the Critical Psychiatry Network,[…]

Recent protests over austerity related benefit cuts indicate that British society is divided. Government attempts to reduce the number of people on benefits are creating a chasm between rich and poor. The most vulnerable in[…]

My blood pressure has been up-and-down for years. Usually, when it’s measured in the surgery it’s up, but at home it’s down. A consultant physician told me in 1994 I had white-coat (labile) hypertension, and[…]

I spent most of yesterday going through the written evidence submitted to the Commons Select Committee on Work and Pensions for its review of benefit sanction policy, Beyond the Oakley review. The government originally set[…]

Now and again you read something that makes you blink and stops you dead in your tracks. When you realise that the text that provoked this response is something you co-authored and published fifteen years[…]

Recent events suggest that the profession of clinical psychology is adrift, and lacks any ethical or self-critical direction. These events include the failure of the British Psychological Society (BPS) to engage with the perspectives of[…]

Some years ago shortly after I moved to work in Bradford, something happened that made me think carefully about what it means to be a psychiatrist. In the lead up to Christmas we managed to[…]