In all our sanctuaries we sit at risk

Category: General

  • Cat vies with Hard Drive for my soul

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    A psychiatrist called Iain McGilchrist has written what in my opinion is an extraordinary and important book called “The Master and his Emissary – The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World.”  I feel instantly at home with, and liberated by, its central thesis. Here is a quote from the blurb on the…

  • Fable 10 – The Pernicious Appeal of the “Strong Model”

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    “The Pernicious Appeal of the Strong Model“ explores the power and attraction of different forms of idolatry, or fundamentalism, for people in disarray or under unusual stress. But this is not a piece about “true faith” as opposed to “false faith”. Idolatry/fundamentalism is not restricted to the religious ; it extends to anyone who accepts…

  • Shahada

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    I have recently imagined myself standing before a man of good sense, deep learning and positive engagement with humanity, and professing to that person my basic beliefs. A profession of faith. A sort of Shahada. Once, in a much less comfortable public situation than mine, Martin Luther found himself setting out his position in similar…

  • Fable 9 – The Ark One Hour Long

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    “The ark one hour long” explores the ubiquity in modern life of only partial and manipulative human contact, person to person. Most of our encounters through the day are with people who only see our outward edge, our mask, or just a passing glimpse, and anyway do not want to see us true ; we…

  • Mental Health Witness – Marketing “Recovery”

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    In the mental health services, the “Recovery Model” has achieved good sales in recent years. Good pitch, good branding. Upwardly-mobile managers and organisations able to lay claim to being passionate about “recovery” win brownie-points and funding. We function in that sort of climate these days, in the care services. But this seems more than just…

  • Mental Health Witness – Who’s a Skiver, then ?

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    George Osborne’s division of the nation into Us “Strivers”  and Them “Skivers” (but weren’t  we once “all in this together” ?) has reminded me of some nineteenth century history I learned at school. It provides some context for Osborne’s venomous jingle two centuries later, and a way of measuring its quality and pedigree. I still…

  • Mental Health Witness – Abiding with Mental Ill-health

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    This is the second piece specifically on mental health I have posted up. The first can be found a few posts further down. They will form part of a series, all sharing the title “mental health witness” and all filled of a strong sense of present emergency.(However, it’s worth saying that several of the fables,…

  • Fable 8 – The Ring of Defence

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    I am adding  Fable Eight here to the pieces I’ve uploaded earlier, each under the same banner. They belong in a series called “Fables and Reflections” which consists of sixteen pieces in all. “The Ring of Defence” describes a position and way of living given over entirely to defence. It might be said that the…