“I never know quite how to introduce myself…” “People never seem prepared to listen to me when it’s my turn to explain what I do…” “Well, I’m just one of those boring…” “I come away thinking that they haven’t really… Continue reading
This month, I’m involved in helping run a summer school in Oxford, the Adaptation Academy, for senior staff involved in climate adaptation projects. My strand embraces the human dimension – self-development, leadership, politics, and communication. Following a leadership tour of… Continue reading
In his book, “Talent is Overrated: What Really Separates World-Class Performers from Everybody Else”, published in 2008, Geoff Colvin presented an extraordinarily well researched argument that demonstrated that the key characteristic that distinguished people who were widely recognised as world… Continue reading
The RSA has just published a report entitled; “Beyond the Big Society – Psychological Foundations of Active Citizenship”. You can download it here: http://www.thersa.org/projects/social-brain/beyond-the-big-society. It’s a fascinating read, making a …
A new and quite extraordinary, indeed unprecedented, scientific study of cyclothymia has shown that it can be cured using a powerful combination of two different forms of psychotherapy. WHAT IS CYCLOTHYMIA? Most people are aware of manic depression, often refered… 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 haven’t already seen it, you might like to watch the BBC documentary series, The Beauty of Diagrams. The first episode is on the drawing “The Vitruvian Man” by Leonardo da Vinci. It’s available on iplayer until 10pm on… Continue reading
