Joker
May Contain Spoilers In the same week as World Mental Health Day (10th October) the blockbuster, from the DC Comics’ Batman series, “Joker” was number one in both the UK and US box offices. While the various Batman movies, and...
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Anti-stigma campaigns in mental health: what gets left out?
Over the past two decades, stigma for people with mental health problems has become an increasing concern for researchers, practitioners, service users and politicians. This has led to several international government funded campaigns to increase public awareness of the realities...
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The Fragility of the Enterprise
I’m at a medium-sized conference, one I’ve attended several times before and I am in a deep depression*. An anthropologist I don’t know is looking at me, intently. She has just told me that she’s especially interested in what I...
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Student Mental Health, Social Class and Insecurity in Sally Rooney’s “Normal People”
ISBN 9780571334650 Format Paperback Published 02/05/2019 Length 288 pages Sally Rooney’s second novel Normal People (recently published in paperback) has drawn a great deal of praise being suggested as a “future classic” for its zeitgeisty insights into the relationships and...
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Urban Nature
There has been a resurgence of interest in the need for more green space in our cities. Being near nature lifts the mood, and there is hard evidence of the positive mental health effects of time spent with nature. However,...
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The interpretive difficulties of self-harm in “Sharp Objects”
Intense, languid, and darkly atmospheric: HBO’s Sharp Objects has been the show of the summer. Adapted from Gillian Flynn’s novel, the show follows Camille (Amy Adams, extraordinary as always), a journalist who returns to the sleepy Southern town of her childhood...
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The Mercy: Mental Health, Seafaring and Mythical Voyages
Mental Health, Seafaring and Mythical Voyages The recent UK cinema release of “The Mercy” revisits the tragic tale of Donald Crowhurst and his doomed entry into the Sunday Times Golden Globe Race. This was a non-stop, single-handed, round-the-world yacht race,...
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What to do about our toxic universities?
“My senior management seems to live in a governance free zone. One in particular who joined with the new VC has developed a reputation for turning disagreements into sacking”. UK University Employee Anyone who takes more than a passing interest...
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The “snowflake generation”
Dangerous myths in precarious times You might have seen headlines about the “snowflake generation” or “generation snowflake”: a derogatory term to describe young adults in the 2010’s. It was made one of the “words of the year” in 2016 by...
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On Vincent & Nina: Images of genius & madness
Over the summer I visited the Vincent Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam. Given my grasp of Dutch is somewhat limited, I hired the audio-tour so I could better appraise myself of the exhibits. As I wandered around I was struck...
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The ADHD chronicles: Squeezing through the bars of the iron cage
My first two attempts to get evaluated for ADHD only resulted in promises that the psychologist would call me back. This never happened, and the only official indication that I was ever in contact with him/her was the invoices I...
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Are cities bad for our mental health?