The Threat of Kittens
TS Elliot measured his life in coffee spoons. It seems these days we express ours in terms of kittens. This use of irrelevance to give meaning to life reminds me of a woman who...
Category: PTSD
The MoD Really Must Start Caring for its People – NOW
The MoD have always been unwilling to acknowledge that military service can have adverse effects on people. Their preferred message follows those pumped out by military recruitment campaigns: “Be the Best”, “thousands of jobs...
How Do We Win the Afghan War?
Deciding when you’ve won a battle is hard enough. Once upon a time, this was decided by Heralds from both sides, who argued it out then the combatants’ leaders agreed to the decision. If...
Neuroscience, Memory and Art
Neuroscience frightens me. Thinking about the processes within the 3.5lb lumps of tofu that allow us to think about ourselves is to question the reality of our flickering self-awareness. It makes me feel vertiginous,...
We Need to be Beautiful
When an FBI forensic artist drew portraits of women according to their own descriptions of themselves, and then a second sketch according to the descriptions of another woman they’d met, the differences were incredible...
Self-Awareness as a Survival Mechanism – and Duty
An article in the New Yorker triggered off some ideas I’ve been thinking about for the past few days. It was a about an agency setting itself up to sell celebrities’ free time for...
News International Phone Hacking and Bereaved Forces Families
Tragedy sells newspapers, Intruding on grief isn’t new, ought to be banned, and is now part of newspapers desperate fight for survival.
Sensing the Field
The psychological technique of family constellations provided a remarkable weekend workshop experience. Created to help the victims of war – specifically of the Holocaust, it has obvious benefits for war veterans, but being so astonishingly powerful, requires great care.
