Tim O’Malley has had the courage to say that the ‘Emperor has no clothes’, meaning that psychiatry is a profession that may promise a lot, but delivers little. But, somehow, when any branch of medicine is challenged, there is an outraged response from the Irish Hospital Consultants Association defending their position. If before the sexual revelations, the Catholic Clergy were the ‘untouchables’, it would appear that the new untouchables are medical consultants. If they are so convinced of their position why would they react so vehemently to Mr O’Malley’s most recent opinion that ‘some people (consultants) like having long waiting lists? It makes them feel very powerful if they have 100 or 200 people waiting.’ This is an accurate observation of how ‘some’ people’s vulnerability may, indeed, manifest itself.
Read moreWhat Lies Hidden
Leo Tolstoy wrote that ‘all happy families are alike, but each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.’ The reality is that most families are a mixture of hurtful and nurturing experiences, but the most common illusion is that we all come from happy families! The myth of the happy family is a clever creation that seeks to keep hidden the neglect – physical, sexual, emotional, social, intellectual, behavioural, creative – within a family. The façade of the happy family is reinforced by regular contact, regular family meetings, family celebrations and an over-involvement in each other’s lives but every interaction stays at the surface level. What lies beneath is skilfully avoided.
Read moreNo Drugs Please, We're Children
Are we facing a future in which children will be wrongfully medicated, as parents, teachers, doctors, psychiatrists turn readily to chemical fixes as a substitute for understanding and resolving childhood distress through relationships and psycho-social interventions? In Britain, and gradually in Ireland, there is a loud chorus of politicians, teachers, religious leaders, doctors, child- and parent-interest associations claiming that too many of our children are experiencing considerable stress, family conflict and even depression. All sorts of credible reasons are being put forward for children’s inner and outer turmoil – inadequate child-rearing, lack of physical affection, family conflict, marital breakdown, unprecedented pressures at home and at school (parental ambitions, educational system that is driven by government-legislated school tests, lack of adventure in school classrooms).
Read moreMinister's View on Mental Illness a Breath of Fresh Air
Adherents of the medical model of human misery were quickly out of their trenches to fight their cause following Tim O’Malley’s declaration in the Irish Medical News. Mr O’Malley stated ‘that there’s a strong view with a lot of people that depression and mental illness is not a medical condition, that it’s part of life events that people get depressed or just unhappy. Years ago people were unhappy, they weren’t depressed, they weren’t given the name of depressed.’ Whilst I agree that a label never accurately describes an individual’s deep distress, the reality is that individuals do experience considerable inner turmoil and urgently need help to resolve it. Each person’s turmoil is unique and it is for that reason in my own professional practice that each person receives a different therapy, uniquely tailored to their inner and outer circumstances.
Read moreThe Prevention of Suicide
Two items of recent news struck me as needing to be corrected. The first concerned the benefits of stable relationships. Professor Hugh McKenna, Dean of the faculty of Life and Health Science spoke at the University of Ulster’s Mental Health Week about how ‘poor and unstable interpersonal relationships can lead to mental health problems, just as the development of stable interpersonal relationships can bring people back to mental health.’ He went on to say ‘what patients need most in the midst of the healthcare maze are sensitive and caring healthcare professionals willing to enter into interpersonal relationships that foster hope and prevent hopelessness.’ Whilst I would take issue with the term ‘mental health’ and referring to people as ‘patients’, I thoroughly agree that therapeutic recovery is completely dependent on the nature of the relationship between the person who is offering help and the person who is seeking it.
Read more