They get a bad wrap, but nursing homes are a better option than only having walls to talk to. – Sydney Morning Herald, March 2016 – 2UE Radio spot, 28th March 2016
An Easter Message
The Easter bunny’s origin has been thought to be related to an ancient motif of three hares found in sacred sites throughout Europe and the Middle East. Thought to be a symbol of the Trinity, it is an essential doctrine
The Dark Side of Batman
In the trailer for the upcoming Suicide Squad, the newest blockbuster comic book movie, Margot Robbie (playing supervillain and former psychiatrist Harley Quinn) announces to a crowd of apprehensive prison inmates that her hallucinations are telling her to kill
Videogames – friend or foe?
Psychiatry has had an unusual relationship with videogames – and despite several hundred studies on the topic, it is still not clear how and to what extent they influence the mind. Do they encourage violence? And can they prevent dementia?
The Santa Clause in Mental Health
What does mental health literature have to say about talking to kids about Santa Claus? http://www.smh.com.au/comment/lying-to-the-kids-about-santa-claus-a-psychiatrists-view-20151217-glpn0z.html
Euthanasia – the problem of capacity
I once had a 70 year old patient with recurrent serious depressive episodes leading to suicide attempts. She was a “professional suicider”, in that she subscribed to an organisation that clandestinely posted out kits to help people kill themselves. I
The Psychiatric Benefits of Halloween
What possible reason is there to encourage kids to pretend to be witches and goblins and have them scare each other for one night a year? Naturally, for psychiatric reasons.
Mental Health Resources
The Internet is rife with well-intentioned mental health advice, supposed resources, and many, many pitfalls. Much of the difficulty is the reality of psychiatry, in that the lack of objective evidence regarding psychiatric illness (save treatment responses and, in some
Suicidality can exist without depression
The Chairman of Lifeline Australia, John Brogden, shared an important message recently in the Sydney Morning Herald with “The national emergency we can no longer ignore”. As a suicide attempt survivor himself, he grimly noted that 2500 Australians still take
Gender, Sexuality, and Religion: The End.
It was shortly after the second mission to Mars that society finally ceased. It was probably 2050, although the date is certainly in dispute, when sexual perversion was finally eradicated. It was, unsurprisingly if uncharitably, the Germans who were responsible,