PhD, Mental Health Nurse, Lecturer, Researcher, Writer. Interested in philosophy, 'personality disorder' and mental health care. Own views. #MHDeservesBetter
The 'conceptual black hole of borderline personality disorder': how can BPD be not real mental illness but too unstable for therapy, described as not personality disorder but treated as only personality disorder, and also, borderline of what? Open access: https://t.co/QX2eWog97n
Still think we’re understating the impact of AI on university degrees. A growing numbers of students don’t just lack the inclination to read but the *capacity*. Literally unable to read and absorb difficult sentences for an extended period. Same goes for writing.
Even Freud argued that traditional medical school was not suitable for teaching psychoanalysis because they focus heavily on anatomy and physical chemistry, while neglecting the mental, humanistic side of human behavior.
Being awarded the Skellern Lecture for 2026 is an honour which I'm still coming to terms with. I'll do my best to offer something provocative, thoughtful and useful for mental health nursing. If you can make it, places can be reserved here:
https://t.co/nfC7m8Ib4j
The tragedy of the psychotherapy professions:
Serious clinicians do their work in private and focus on developing their clinical skills.
Therapy influencers seek the public spotlight. Their skillset is self-promotion and digital marketing. They are often showmen and profiteers giving a cultural performance of “expert” for a public audience.
Because real psychotherapists work in private while influencers seek the spotlight and consume the oxygen, public perceptions of "therapy" are now shaped by profiteers.
The public is losing the ability to distinguish knowledge from marketing, and so are some in the therapy professions. Many therapy trainees who sincerely want to become skilled psychotherapists and strive for excellence don't know where to turn for quality training or who to trust.
This is the tragedy of the psychotherapy professions. I fear things are only going to get worse.
In the world of psychotherapy the term "Research shows....." Frequently means cherry picking the one paper that supports our view and ignoring of dozens and dozens of papers that say the opposite.
'Evidence based ' and 'Gold standard's are classic examples of this.
Important statement from the RCN today: "We do not support a move toward generic nurse education models... The College remains protective of all nursing fields..."
https://t.co/twrbwhFuwt
Picture I took a couple of days ago of an advert on the London Underground. Now try and convince that ADHD hasn't been turned into a scam for profiteering.
Everyone can speak with some authority about the particulars of their own experiences (even as we recognize our state of self-ignorance and capacity for self-distortions), but if we are interested in *generalizable knowledge*, there is no substitute for a community of truth-seekers interested in meticulous observations, creative conjecture, open critique, and error correction. The idea that any single person has some unique access to truth is a fantasy.
As over 200 patients are shipped out of St Andrews Hospital I want to thank @PrivateEyeNews and @drphilhammond for shining light on the inadequacies of of private locked rehab placements and the fear in the nhs that drives their use.