Guy Kett presented “Reactive Attachment Disorder”. This was clearly a heartfelt and personal issue concerning his family. Academically, from the stance of my experience as a Registrar in Psychiatry in 1971 I do not regard this as a pathological diagnosis, but rather as a variation of behavioural disorder. Vera Hopkins (retired Consultant Psychologist) was present and searching in her questions’
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According to Mary Shelley the idea for her story came to her in a waking dream. In her waking dream, Victor Frankenstein appears as a man of titanic ambitions whose over weaning pride leads him to take on the mantle of being a god who will engineer a second creation and who then abandons what he has made because his creature does not fit his ideal. Her story is the tale of a dispassionate mind unhinged from nature that disregards the feminine in the work of creation. It is a prophetic tale, which, foreshadowing a type of thinking that characterises our scientific- technological worldview, endures in the cultural imagination of our time.
Increasing evidence is emerging that the brain is largely shaped by our social experiences through neuroplasticity, Social experience may have more powerful effects on gene expression through epigenetics than classical heredity. The audience effect means that gene expression is more powerful when we are in the company of others than when we are alone. This research is converging with indigenous knowledge that healing occurs within the context of community and that our social relationships make us who we are. I will speak about the neuroscience, the indigenous knowledge, their convergence, and our research findings in relation to this, including the impact of healing circles/talking circles on symptom relief and quality of life in primary care, the power of group healing and peer counseling/support for people who have psychosis, and the role of group self-medical care on improving health for people with diabetes, asthma, and pregnant women with drug and alcohol problems. In all these contexts, the power of group and community for healing is demonstrated. We conclude with the implications for the future of medicine and psychology.
The World Community for Christian Meditation presents: Human Healing within the Science and Religion Dialogue Led by Dr Gillian Straine Wednesday 11 […]
Iain McGilchrist will contend that the world in which we live in the West is shaped by a set of beliefs about reality which we know from experience, and feel intuitively, to be almost certainly false. Though the consequences of this are widely deplored, we seem strangely powerless to resist it. We are as if in a trance, whistling a happy tune as we sleepwalk towards the abyss.