Psychiatrist, neuroscientist, dabbler in public engagement, occasional stand up comedian.
University of Cambridge & SMHS Western Australia.
He/him
11 subscribers
Mar 1, 2023 • 16 tweets • 3 min read
Story 🧵- title at the end
'I don't know why she won't give me a chance, I have so much love to give.'
'Oh, ok. How much love exactly?'
'So much, I would do anything for her!'
'And that's the kind of thing women find attractive in a man?'
'It should be!'
'I see...
1/15
...anything else apart from the abundance of love?'
'What?'
'I mean, "I have so much love to give" is not wha- I mean, not all, you'd put on your dating profile is it?'
'I'm not making a dating profile, I know she's the one!'
'The destined recipient of your abundant love?'
2/15
Dec 26, 2022 • 14 tweets • 3 min read
🧵 The labour of looking after:
Given that we've just had Christmas*, I thought it might be a good time to think about the people in our lives who do a lot of looking after other people.
*Also works with other religious festivals and days of the year.
1/14
Most of us look after someone in our lives (non-humans included of course), many of us are carers of children, other family members & friends. Some of us choose to look after other people around us, because we can, or we find it rewarding, or it's a part of our self-value
2/14
Dec 20, 2022 • 11 tweets • 2 min read
Experimental story thread:
Setting myself a very minor challenge of writing a story in 5-6 tweet installments. I have the first 2 lines but little else and challenge is to write regular installments with no plot line upfront. It may be mildly diverting.
Here goes.
1. To his great disappointment, AK woke up. Fuck. He was still here.
He dragged himself out of the bed and to the window and peered through the blinds. The last ember of hope fizzled out. Fuck. The world was still here too.
10035.
Dec 19, 2022 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
Personally I think the Game of Thrones reference was really a meta-reference to the violent misogyny of the series, and I think in that sense it was fairly spot on, obtuse perhaps, but not clumsy. 1/5
It's a bit tricky with public statements but usually apologies (& 'apologies') give you a good sense of what the person thinks the offence (and its scale) was and who was affected.
This reads like he thinks he made a minor boo-boo & the people affected are those who are hurt.
2/5
Sep 25, 2022 • 10 tweets • 2 min read
Got a few questions about this so thought I'd just reply in a mini-🧵 (that'll teach them to ask questions)
In the society and culture we live in, what are the markers we usually use to make an assessment of someone's intelligence/ability?
Btw, we do this all the time as social beings, whether it is to determine our own status with regards to other people or making decisions about who should have power. I would think of these assessments in these terms rather than in terms of judging individual people.
2/10
Sep 14, 2022 • 25 tweets • 7 min read
🧵 on the paper
The ‘rhetorical concession’: a linguistic analysis of debates and arguments in mental health
Garner B, Kinderman P, Davis P, J Mental Health
The core of this paper is the analysis of 6 blogs from 6 different psychiatrists and psychologists.
1/23
I'm going through this the way that I would look at any paper i.e. aims, methods and results and then look at the contextualisation and discussion to see what they add.
2/23
Sep 9, 2022 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
'Think of me as just another person like you. (My vast wealth and power are merely incidental).'
Power allows one the privilege of self-determination of one's image and identity, who one can choose to be in any context.
1/4
One has the choice of having only selected (favourable) aspects of oneself considered and other (less favourable) aspects ignored/suppressed.
Most of the less favourable aspects relate to the possession of power and wealth, and what has done and is doing with it.
2/4
Sep 6, 2022 • 10 tweets • 2 min read
Ting this old 🧵with an addendum
'I know them and they would never do something like that to anyone.'
-Were you there when they did it?
-Did you actually see what they did? i.e. from the perspective of the person it was done to?
1/10
-Did you at least listen to other person's account of what happened to/was done to them?
If 'NO' to all, then:
Why, and on what basis, are you defending the aggressor and dismissing the victim?
2/10
Sep 2, 2022 • 18 tweets • 4 min read
🧵 Misogyny and the 'good girl' ideal
The idea or ideal of the 'good girl' is an important aspect and enforcement tool of both systematised and internalised misogyny.
Let's have a look at the 'good girl' ideal.
1/18
The 'good girl' ideal is an amalgamation of all the patriarchal role expectations of women in the particular culture, broadly 'knowing her place' and 'doing what is expected of her' i.e. assuming and fulfilling the demands of her subordinate position in the power hierarchy.
2/18
Jul 3, 2022 • 8 tweets • 2 min read
Imagine you have someone very close to you who has a genetic disease that will manifest in their early 30s and cause severe disability and early death.
They are 25 now and there is no cure for this disease.
There is however...
1/8
...a treatment they can take that with some lifestyle modifications, will significantly slow down the progression of the disease and delay its manifestation.
There is a catch. For this to work, they have to take the treatment continuously + keep up the lifestyle changes.
2/8
Jun 16, 2022 • 7 tweets • 1 min read
Academic freedom is complex, nuanced and precious.
What many people (and I was one of them) don't realise is that one of it's central pillars is the right to be an asshole to other people.
1/7
Nothing restricts academic freedom like the inability to bully, harass, intimidate and humiliate colleagues and students.
2/7
May 24, 2022 • 17 tweets • 4 min read
Feeling rather nostalgic for that time when NHS mental health services were merely at breaking point...
1/17
Of course I'm only feeling like this because of just how bad things are now. No beds available, lots of very unwell people in the community, major staff shortages, staff overstretched, overwhelmed and burning out.
2/17
Apr 26, 2022 • 25 tweets • 5 min read
Another 🧵about misogyny:
CW: This thread is about a particularly dark and sinister form of misogyny that is especially relevant to academia, business and high powered professions.
I am mindful that it may be difficult reading so wanted to include a CW up front.
1/25
'She is beautiful, she is intelligent, she is successful. I will have her. I will destroy her.' : A🧵about an especially vicious form of misogyny
This is about a particular kind of abuse (and abuser) that is summed up by the title of this thread.
2/25
Apr 24, 2022 • 60 tweets • 11 min read
Emotionally abusive men and systematic & internalised misogyny: A 🧵 for men
(Partly, but not exclusively, about some South Asian communities)
Some aspects of how women suffer in relationships with emotionally abusive men in highly patriarchal & misogynistic communities.
1/60
This thread has been occasioned by some friends’ recent experiences and is based on my own experiences with & observations of, mainly some S Asian communities. However certain aspects may be relevant to other strongly patriarchal and misogynistic communities.
2/60
Apr 23, 2022 • 28 tweets • 6 min read
🧵 COVID minimisation:
This tweet took off rather unexpectedly so I wanted to clarify that this tweet is about COVID minimisation (not primarily about these worrying fulminant hepatitis cases) and explain why.
By COVID minimisation I refer to the set of positions and approaches that maintain COVID is not a particularly severe illness (including those that state that it is no longer severe because of vaccines and antivirals, or that it is evolving to become less severe).
'I could have been a boxer, like my dad. He could have been a boxer too.'
'They used to consider nostalgia to be a medical condition in Russia but that was in the good old days.'
Lines casually dropped into this episode:
1/7 bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/b0…
If you haven't heard of him, this thread is here to correct this grave error of circumstance (or, perish the thought, choice).
Munnery is a comedic genius and I include some links to his work in this thread which will make clear why, starting with: 2/7
There may have been a time early in the pandemic when the 'SARS-CoV-2 is like flu' comparison may have been reasonable but for most of the last 2 years, it has been disinformation.
Disinformation that has been used to repeatedly minimise and deny the seriousness of COVID.
1/4
Disinformation that has been used by governments to argue against taking measures to control the pandemic and to muddy public health messaging.
Disinformation that has been used by anti-vaxx and related groups to...well, do their thing.
2/4
Mar 26, 2022 • 11 tweets • 2 min read
Story time:
The Call
Can you hear me ok with the mask?
It's noisy here. You sure?
Great! Where are the hair and make up team?
Oh, it's just you is it?
Well, can't complain. Just do your best.
God, I look a right state.
Got any more cushions?
1/11
Can I use the prongs on camera?
No worries, it'll only be a few minutes.
Thanks, but she can only manage short calls.
I think it's the video, it really throws her.
No, she never got the hang of it even before.
Now she doesn't even remember me half the time.
2/11
Mar 20, 2022 • 22 tweets • 4 min read
🧵 On unbounded self-expectations:
This is about a particular type of core self-belief that can be very harsh and damaging while seeming to be 'just about having high standards for myself'.
Typical examples:
'I should be doing more.'
'I should be able to manage this.'
1/22
The examples above are deliberately vague as the particular kind of unbounded self-expectations I am talking about often present themselves in this form, a form where many of us would think 'hey, I feel like that too, it's pretty normal* '.
*with usual caveats.
2/22
Mar 20, 2022 • 25 tweets • 5 min read
🧵Controlling the COVID pandemic: who was/is it for?
An attempted meta-view of what's happened over the last 2 years and will continue to happen for some time to come and who has been most impacted
OR
How the pandemic strategy we got was by design
(feat. Brexit)
1/25
When we look back on what has happened over the last 2 years and the direction that various countries are pursuing with their pandemic strategies now, it seems pretty clear that this was the strategy's aim.
Brexit is a good model to illustrate this. Bear with me on this.
2/25
