How you make me feel; projection and its identification.
Why do we trust some people and not others? Why do we admire some people? Why do some people make us uncomfortable? Is it because they remind us of significant figures in our lives; our mother, our father, a brother or sister, a lover, a husband, wife, a teacher? Are they suitable objects for our projections? Projection is a ubiquitous feature of human nature. It is the cornerstone of evolution; what makes us human; the effect of an opposable thumb. As soon as we could throw, we could make things... Read more »
The past is another country. Or is it?
Friar Barnadine: "Thou hast committed--" Barabas: "Fornication-- but that was in another country / And besides, the wench is dead." Christopher Marlow (The Jew of Malta) What made people like Guy Burgess or Anthony Blunt rebel against their society, betray their country and spy for the soviet union? Was it a reaction against... Read more »
There, but for the grace of God; a perspective on psychosis.
You’re driving me mad, I’m going crazy, I’m losing my mind, he’s just daft, it just doesn’t make sense! How many times a day do you hear such sentiments? How often do you express them yourself? Our lives are so complex, so pressurised that we have to work very hard... Read more »
Ghosts in the Nursery
Henry James leaves his stories open to his readers interpretations. That is the source of their intrigue. The ‘Turn of the Screw’ is his most famous and most chilling novel, but why? Is it because it explores, albeit obliquely, that most horrific of topics, the loss of innocence. The governess... Read more »
White ribbons; repression and its consequences
Eichvald is a small Baronial village in northern Prussia, a patriarchal society dominated by powerful male autocrats who justified their abuse of their womenfolk and their children on the grounds that it was what they needed. ‘This will hurt me more than it hurts you’. It is the autumn of... Read more »
All life is yoga
‘All life is Yoga.’ So wrote Sri Aurobindo, sage and spiritual master, the author of ‘A Synthesis of Yoga.’ Yoga is not just a series of exercises to improve posture and make the body supple, its acolytes would define it as a method for self perfection leading ultimately to a... Read more »
Running from women with reindeer and other obsessions.
The U boats lay in wait for us as soon as we rounded North Cape. There was only a narrow passage between the tundra and the ice, and as they closed in on the convoy underwater, Stukas from their Norwegian bases, dive bombed us from above. It was hell! The... Read more »
In search of meaning
‘To live is to suffer, to survive is to find meaning in the suffering. If there is any purpose in life at all, there must be a purpose in suffering and in dying. But no man can tell another what this purpose is. Each must find out for himself, and... Read more »
It’s a Dog’s Life!
‘A dog is a man’s best friend’, so they say. They are our companions. They are, like us, social carnivores that hunt in the daylight. We were made to collaborate. How much more effective we would have been as hunters with dogs to detect and chase our prey. And dogs... Read more »
Haunted! ‘Trauma’ and McGrath’s ghosts.
Charlie is a psychiatrist, an expert on trauma. His marriage to Agnes broke up after her brother, Danny, committed suicide. Danny was a Vietnamese veteran whose buddy was killed by a booby trap device right next to him. He was also Charlie’s patient. He blew his brains out after Charlie... Read more »
Rewriting the story
Our spirit or soul is like a book upon which we write the story of our life; a narrative that explains our attitudes and beliefs, accounts for our actions and may mitigate our misdemeanours. It’s our personal identity, how we see ourselves. It doesn’t have to be based on what... Read more »
Of daughters, damage and destruction; is that the legacy of Mrs Klein?
Melanie Klein might be said to have founded the British School of Psychoanalysis, though it was never as formal as that. There was a never a ‘concrete school’ more a movement dominated by the ideas and interpretations of Mrs Klein. Psychoanalysis was (and still is) very incestuous. There were not many... Read more »
Dr Haggard’s Disease
It was 1937; and there was trouble on the horizon. They recognized each other at a funeral. There was a spark. Then they found they were sitting next to each other at the Cushing’s dinner party. He was Dr Edward Haggard, house surgeon at St Basil’s and a bit of... Read more »
How to keep your shape when all about are losing theirs; is there an answer to the obesity epidemic?
For the last twenty years, we have been getting noticeably fatter. Rates of obesity in America and Western Europe have more than doubled since the nineteen eighties. And the problem shows no sign of diminishing. If trends continue, it has been estimated by 2050, one in two adults and one... Read more »
Madly in love
When her husband, Max, is appointed director of an asylum in Essex, Stella is not overjoyed. She is bored; ‘dying of chronic neglect’. She resents the restrictions of her position and the limited perspectives of the other wives. To relieve the monotony, she develops an attraction to Edgar, a handsome... Read more »
Spider
He is the last off the train. He looks lost, wary, an alien from another world. He stops, picks up an object from the edge of a puddle, examines it and puts it in his pocket. Everything about him is strange. He doesn’t so much walk but shuffle, keeping close... Read more »
Towards the vanishing point.
I had some pizza that I made the previous night and thought to share that and the remains of a bottle of claret with her. But she is not right. Julie has told me that she gets very emotional at the prospect of me coming round. I have recently begun... Read more »
Failing Better.
'Ever tried? Ever failed? No matter. Try Again. Fail again. Fail better.' Samuel Beckett Don't give up! Learn from your mistakes. Do better next time. Remember Robert Bruce and the spider, Alfred and the cakes. Just pick yourself up, dust yourself down and start all over again. That seems be the message... Read more »
Doing things by the book; the flawed excellence of the new NHS.
I should have listened to her dentist. She cared enough to call me in London and tell me that the Xray had shown a small translucency around the root of the bottom right canine and there was a sinus pointing to the gum. 'Your mum will need that tooth out,'... Read more »
Losing her Mind; How can we understand Dementia
'Oh Nick, Oh Nick! Please! Please!' 'What is it mum?' 'I don't know. It's all gone wrong.' 'Try to rest, mum.' 'But I'm so hot!' I take the blanket off her. 'My feet are so cold.' I put her slippers on. 'Oh these are too heavy. Take them off.' I remove them. 'My mouth is so dry.' 'Shall I make you... Read more »
Spoilt!
When I was growing up, the worst thing you could be was ‘spoilt’. My parents would point at other children and say, wrinkling their upper lips with disgust. ‘And he’s another spoilt brat.’ Being spoilt was a dreadful sin and not one of your own causing but... Read more »
Lost to emotion; does the way we feel control the way we think?
‘My thoughts change like the weather. When the sun is shining, I feel excited, optimistic. I can see a way through. We will work things out and it will be fine. Then a cloud passes across the face of the sun, a shadow of doubt and... Read more »
