Take Two

So I finally got the proposal through the system and received the feedback...area of research sound but proposal a bit radical for standard academia. I was given some great steers on recent policy and legislation with a caveat to re-write a more focused and significantly shorter proposal. Oh yes and to get my head out of the anti-psychiatry movement i.e. the 60s, Laing and BigPharma :(

Well I am happy to say I completed it today and emailed it. So I wait with bated breath for the result.

The whole process has been demanding but extremely exciting as I try and raise my personal bar as high as I can for the benefit of others or at least that's the theory.

Going to read the McDonaldization of Social Work and Crime and Punishment as I head back to UK for a few weeks...

‘They called me mad, and I called them mad, and damn them, they outvoted me’

Mickey Gives You a Dustin...

In an effort to avoid this all getting a bit dusty I thought an update was in order. Eventually after practically stalking the research department and finally getting on the same page as the research director, the proposal has been read and is in the system somewhere?!

In the meantime I sent the proposal to Dr Pat Bracken, co-originator of the concept of Postpsychiatry. He was very encouraging, which gave me a little emergency fuel for my flagging rocket.

Also Donna Dustin from London Met has been like Mickey from Rocky - in my corner - which has been invaluable!

So as we approach March I still await news of the next stage...I am in London in April so it would be a tad useful to have things moving before then.

Robert F. Kennedy: 'Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.'

Still in the Bardo...

Still waiting to hear from university about the PhD. The waiting is hard as the creative juices and enthusiasm are bubbling away...just don't want to peak! ...in the meantime I have continued reading - everything. Finished the Brothers, what a masterpiece, feel a better person for having had the good fortune to come across it and finish it. Clearly a late developer, in my early 20s I had only read a handful of books from start to finish.

Also completed the initial phase of the psychosocial programme including major draft of methodology and a range of training materials. Also managed to conduct some initial research on people in Malaysia's view of mental health - fascinating.

There is a spectrum of experience on this planet that is infinite...from the horrors of war and torture to the unknown heroes trying to make a little bit of difference through kindness and compassion. If one is brave enough not to label, the mass of what is makes total sense in no sense other than the non dualistic manifestation of what is...

In the Meantime...

So the PhD proposal has been received and it is working its way through the system...

...in the meantime I have begun a new project working for a Malaysian NGO offering medical and humanitarian relief to disaster zones. They have retained me to develop and implement a psychosocial programme.

So far I have presented a successful project plan, implementation rationale and timeline to create and implement an internal and external psychosocial strategy and training. This will include a methodology, field manual, filed work and extensive training of staff and volunteers. I haven’t quite figured how this will fit with my PhD.

May have to either a. adjust the PhD focus, b. Put a limit on the project time. Need to give it all careful consideration as it could potentially affect quite a lot of people.

Mission Impossible

Or not...for the proposal is complete and couriering its way across the air to London. Hopefully to be received this week with a view to a decision in about four weeks.

Regardless of the outcome, the satisfaction of completing it was wonderful. I was able to consolidate many years of thinking and study linking Dharma and Cognitive Behavioural theory, Laing and Cooper and even mentioned Tom's scary friends at the CCHR.

So now I am enjoying the luxury of not having to write for a while and reading for sport.

If I go ahead with the PhD then I may continue this blog...for now I will leave you with some words of wisdom from Ronnie:

‘The range of what we think and do is limited by what we fail to notice. And because we fail to notice that we fail to notice, there is little we can do to change until we notice how failing to notice shapes our thoughts and deeds’

Something Amazing Happened!

My good friend Rob emailed me to ask me what had happend with my proposal because there was nothing on the blog. The good news is I have been so busy writing and reading that I completely forgot about the blog.

Amazingly I am at the proofing stage of the final draft and hope to post the proposal tomorrow. It is larger that required but was something I needed to do to consoilidate my reading and refecting. So fingers crossed...

Freud would be pleased!

Started reading Dostoevsky’s, the Brothers Karamazov, it is very hard to put down. If ever there was an award for pretentious displacement activity, other than keeping a blog, then this would be it!

For the proposal, I have been reading cognitive formulations of psychosis (extremely convincing) and Laing. Actually, Laing is now on my top 3 people I would like to meet, I think he was misunderstood and feared due to what he pointed at and represented one of the great thinkers of the last 50 years. I do not agree with everything he says but he seems more relevant to psychiatry today than ever.

Been on fire today viz a viz writing really starting get there and really enjoying the reading around it. Set myself a deadline of next Friday, 2 November 2007. Eeeek!