A Day in the Life

For those who don't know, and for those who do, room 237 is the room in The Overlook Hotel in Stanley Kubrick's film version of Stephen King's novel, "The Shining", which the character of Dick Hallorann warns Danny Torrance to stay away from. It is also the room which Jack Nicholson, playing Danny's father, Jack Torrance, enters, only to find an alluring, naked woman in a bath. As she stands up and moves towards Jack and they embrace, however, it becomes clear that, in fact, she is some kind of malevolent spirit, and soon she reveals her true form. For those who've seen the film, I needn't remind you of what happens. But, "Room 237" is also the title of a recent documentary about "The Shining" in which various commentators reveal what they think are the hidden meanings and messages in the film, and I have to say that I found it fascinating, not least because of my own experience of mental ill health. I was once delusional. And, I ...

A while ago I wrote a blog about a report from the Schizophrenia Commission. The report, entitled "The Abandoned Illness", argued that those with a diagnosed psychotic disorder were being let down by a broken and demoralised system. But that is not what I'm going to concentrate on here. Rather, it is just one small part of that report that has got my attention this time, for in it, the head of the Commission, Professor Sir Robin Murray, stated that the days of the "ideological disputes" which had surrounded mental health had now gone. The disputes to which he refers were, I believe, to do with whether mental illness is better viewed as being caused by biological, or environmental/social/personal, factors, and Murray argued that it was now understood that both biological and social factors had a role in mental ill health. However, in "The Observer" newspaper on 12th May, it was reported that the British Psychology Society's division of clinical psy...

"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power." Abraham Lincoln.     I read recently in a book by the journalist Jon Ronson (who, incidentally, also authored "The Psychopath Test", on which I based a previous post entitled, "Do Psychopaths Run the World?") that the genius film director Stanley Kubrick had a great distrust of those in power. After talking to Kubrick's widow, Christiane, Ronson states that the couple's "great principle in life" was to "always be suspicious of people who have, or crave, power". I have to say that I think I share Kubrick's point of view, and as I watched "The Politician's Husband" on BBC2 the other day, the first scenes of which depict David Tennant's character's failed bid for power, I began to wonder just what makes people want such power, and what does it do to them when they get it? To use a contemporary exam...