‘Public Health’ at Psychology, Philosophy and Real Life, Page 3

You haven’t seen your family for weeks. Your job performance is literally a matter of life and death. You’re cooped up in a small living space with work colleagues, and you can’t even step outside for a quick breath of fresh air. You’re an astronaut in space, and you’re depressed. Who can you turn to? The answer — a new computerised therapy system being developed for NASA — might turn out to be pretty useful right here on Earth, too.

Almost all the principles of traditional psychology are based upon the attempts of various theorists to explain a phenomenon rare for its time and almost totally unheard of in modern times. Character disturbance — not neurosis — is the pressing psychological reality of our day and simply can’t be understood or dealt with using traditional paradigms.

The answer? At least God knows he is not a psychiatrist. Dinesh Bhugra, the new President of the Royal College of Psychiatry, UK, has recently stated that he would not himself use an acute psychiatric ward, nor allow any of his family to be placed there.

A damning report from leading ‘neoliberal’ think tank the Centre for Policy Studies takes the UK government to task for being more interested in managing the problem of illicit drug use in prisons than in eradicating it. The problem, according to the report, is that no one in authority understands the prison drugs market.

A new Mind report relates a shocking catalogue of harassment, assault, victimisation and discrimination against those who suffer from mental health problems in England and Wales. This leads me to wonder about therapeutic treatment for people who are so discriminated against — when someone is factually being persecuted in their own home, where does paranoia begin?