Mindlessness

Review by Christina Lee Thomas Joiner, Mindlessness: The Corruption of Mindfulness in a Culture of Narcissism (New York: Oxford University Press 2017). In Mindlessness: The Corruption of Mindfulness in a Culture of Narcissism, Thomas Joiner scrutinises the reliability of positive outcomes in publicised mindfulness-based clinical studies and brings his clinical experience in psychology to shed […]

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Matthew Morgan’s Critical Finds Meaning in Intensive Care Medicine

Review by Amitha Kalaichandran, M.D. The intensive care unit (ICU) in any hospital is the most high-tech, and the least interactive, in terms of doctors and patients. I often think back to two patients in the pediatric ICU—one who had a recurrence of metastatic cancer resulting in multi-organ failure, and for which every last intervention […]

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Enchanting Robots: Intimacy, Magic, and Technology by Maciej Musiał

Review by Sue Smith Enchanting Robots: Intimacy, Magic, and Technology is part of the book series, Social and Cultural Studies of Robots and AI, edited by Kathleen Richardson, Cathrine Hasse and Teresa Heffernan, and is written by Polish academic, Maciej Musiał. In Enchanting Robots Musiał discusses ‘magic’ and ‘magical thinking’ in order to critically assess […]

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The Sadness is Always There

Review by Professor Robert Abrams, Weill Cornell Medicine, New York ‘This Shaking Keeps Me Steady’ directed by Shehrezad Maher, India, 2018  Showing in the London Indian Film Festival (http://londonindianfilmfestival.co.uk/) In the film, ‘This shaking keeps me steady’ the deep emotion and dreams stirred by traumatic scenes are sharply juxtaposed with acting, which is presented as […]

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Ch-ch-ch-changes (Turn and Face the Strange)

Review by © James Evans, Film Critic/Historian Review of Roobha, and Ghost of the Golden Groves Roobha (d: Lenin M. Sivam) and Ghost of the Golden Groves (Shonajhurir, d: Roshni Sen and Aniket Dutta) are two films at the London Indian Film Festival sharing similar themes, but radically different subject matters. The thematic similarities concern […]

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No Pain, All Gain

Review by Dr Khalid Ali, film and media correspondent ‘The Man Who Feels No Pain’ (Mard Ko Dard Nahin Hota), Vasan Bala, India 2018 Showing at the London Indian Film Festival (http://londonindianfilmfestival.co.uk/) The Bagri Foundation London Film Festival celebrates a decade of bringing the best new South Asian films to the UK. The festival will […]

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Words in Pain

Book Review by Kelechi Anucha Olga Jacoby. Ed. Jocelyn Catty, Trevor Moore, Skyscraper Publications, 2019.254pp, £15.00. Words in Pain is a collected volume of letters by a young woman named Olga Jacoby, written over a four year period from 1909 to 1913. It follows the inexorable progression of her terminal illness and is addressed to […]

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The Secret in Their Eyes

Film Review by Dr Khalid Ali, film and media correspondent Two films screening in the Sundance London Film Festival explore the emotionally charged time around a terminal illness and how to communicate and share such bad news between patients and their families. Some family members urge doctors not to tell their relatives the true nature […]

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The Biopsychosocial Model of Health and Disease: New Philosophical and Scientific Developments

Book Review by Neil Vickers Derek Bolton and Grant Gillett, The Biopsychosocial Model of Health and Disease: New Philosophical and Scientific Developments. Houndmills: Palgrave, 2019. ISBN 978-3-030-11899-0. This book is an open access book, that can be downloaded free of charge. The biopsychosocial model of health and disease (BPSM) is the nearest thing academic medicine […]

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Effecting Change in Perspective is a Challenging (and Hence Critical) Endeavour

On Madness and the Demand for Recognition: A philosophical inquiry into identity and mental health activism by Mohammed Abouelleil Rashed (Oxford University Press, 2019), and how ‘soft and pure’ disciplines must take the lead to enrich our repertoire in how we think about ourselves and others today Book Review and Provocation by Kai Syng Tan […]

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