There is always a potentially difficult relationship between service users, carers and professionals. Open dialogue seeks to address this issue through allowing every party in the relationship to have a frank interchange, based on honesty and mutual respect. Hence it is disingenuous to attempt to misrepresent the idea of showing “insight”. Read more…
John Sawkins gained an interest in thinking through the issues of mental health when he had a break down at the age of 52. He worked full time as a lecturer and taught for thirty years. Subsequently he made up his mind that he was going to recover from the break down and returned to work full time again in teaching for nine years. Read more…
This article takes an excerpt of an important book for both its historical context and it’s content. In the field of Mad Studies – an emerging area of study in academia which, although a part of formal education, extends well beyond its borders – the ideas presented in the book hold a high degree of relevance. In this book ‘Mental Seduction and Menticide; The Psychology of Thought Control and Brainwashing‘ by Dr Joost Abraham Maurits Meerloo, various notions of mental coercion are discussed in context with the dangers of totalitarianism and domination of the individual. Read more…
This is a podcast of Professor Ray Miller doing the next in his series of talks ‘What Has Psychology Ever Done For Us?’ where he is examining popular myths in psychology. Everybody is a psychologist and most of us have some understanding of how people work. Or, at least, we think we do. Often Psychology is accused of simply being common sense. As a science it merely confirms what we already know intuitively. After all, much of Psychology is common knowledge that we all share, right? Read more…
