Nick Haslam

Jan 15, 2025 | insidestory.org.au | Nick Haslam

Generations of psychiatrists, psychologists and brain scientists can remember being turned on to the fascinations of mind and brain by the Anglo-American neurologist Oliver Sacks. In a long succession of popular books that began appearing in the early 1970s he explored topics as varied as migraine, deafness, autism, Tourette’s and colour-blindness, often through the medium of case studies.

Dec 11, 2024 | theconversation.com | Nick Haslam

One of the more appealing customs of psychoanalysis is that analysts must be analysed. If you are going to put others on the couch you should lie on it first yourself. That way your psychic wrinkles can be identified – maybe even ironed out – before you are let loose on patients. As the founder of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud was exempt from this rule. Generation after generation of analysts have analysed one another, tracing their lineage back to the master.

Oct 30, 2024 | australianbookreview.com.au | Nick Haslam |Arts Highlights

In a survey on humanity’s most vital inventions, the British public ranked the flush toilet above mobile phones, beds, shoes, and the combustion engine. Who can blame them? In a well-sewered world, we are protected from many of the infectious diseases that contributed to making our unplumbed ancestors’ lives nasty, brutish, and short. Cholera, hepatitis, polio, and the diarrhoeal diseases that continue to kill more people globally than acts of violence all implicate faecal transmission.

Sep 2, 2024 | dailybulletin.com.au | Nick Haslam

Rates of mental ill health among young people are on the rise. Between the years 2020 and 2022, 39% of Australians aged 16 to 24 had a mental disorder in the previous year, compared to 26% in that age range in 2007, and 27% of those aged 18–24 in 1997. The recent Lancet Psychiatry commission on youth mental health documents equally steep increases in mental illness in the United States, UK and Denmark.

Sep 1, 2024 | dailybulletin.com.au | Nick Haslam

The language of mental ill health is inescapable. Diagnostic terms, such as depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), pervade popular culture and saturate the online world. They are the currency of countless news stories and awareness campaigns. The rise of diagnostic labels could be celebrated. It suggests the public’s mental health literacy is increasing and the stigma attached to mental illness is in decline.