Psychodynamically, scapegoating is defined as a “process by which the mechanisms of projection or displacement are used to focus unwarranted levels of aggression, hostility, frustration, etc., on another individual or group.” Aggression, hostility and frustration are behaviours, as is the… Continue reading
PLAYGROUND DYNAMICS If you look at the way in which cohorts of children distribute themselves in the playground, you soon discover some fairly consistent patterns. There will usually be two or three, predominantly single sex, groups of upto eight, then… Continue reading
Very reasonably, a couple of people have raised an eyebrow at the statistics I quoted in my blog items over the last couple of days about the prevalence of mental health issues. These statistics are incredibly difficult to establish and… Continue reading
Thank you all for the positive comments both public and private around my article, published yesterday, about Catherine Zeta-Jones and bipolar disorder. My own particular interest is in the contribution of mental health extremes to productivity (deliberately avoiding labelling it… Continue reading
Catherine Zeta-Jones is one of many creatives to be diagnosed with bipolar disorder, but what is it? Imagine that you have three states of being in your day-to-day life. In one, everything is perfectly normal – life goes on pretty… Continue reading
From casual violence to genocide, acts of cruelty can be traced back to how the perpetrator identifies with other people, argues psychologist Simon Baron-Cohen. Is he right? An interesting article about the work of one of the country’s leading psychologists… Continue reading
If you’ve not seen or heard his talk before, then I really recommend the talk at the RSA given by author and journalist, Evgeny Morozov, in which he presents an alternative view on ‘cyber-utopianism’ – the seductive idea that the… Continue reading
‘The over-zealous super-ego may depend on ritualised patterns of behaviour, and have great difficulty coping with the rich tapestry of human experience and beliefs – considering their own perspective to be the only true way. It is this latter conviction… Continue reading
A few months ago, I was prompted to write a few words by way of introduction to the subject of Psychodynamics. In it, I explained the three different components of our model of the psyche which was proposed originally by… Continue reading
The other week, I found myself watching the film, “The Last King of Scotland” – an account based on events in Uganda under the Presidency of Idi Amin. We saw an individual who had been a model soldier, was liked… Continue reading
