VIOLENCE is a STATE of MIND: and ...? | |||
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My original source: FT? (will check)
Cathleen Schine, Ungovernable, Capricious Life, The New York Review of Books, April 10, 2025, Volume LXXII, Number 6, pp.15-16.
Shattered by Hanif Kureishi. Ecco, 328 pp., $28.00
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| 'Shattered' c/o Penguin |
'Hanif Kureishi, the English playwright, screenwriter, and novelist, posted these words on his Substack in January 2023:
On Boxing Day, in Rome, after taking a comfortable walk to the Piazza del Popolo, followed by a stroll through the Villa Borghese, and then back to the apartment, I had a fall.I had been following Kureishi's Substack for a while out of admiration, curiosity, and loyalty-though Id met him only once, briefly. His dispatches were warm and entertaining, often about the writer's life. But this one was shocking:
I cannot move my arms and legs. I cannot scratch my nose, make a phone call or feed myself. As you can imagine, this is both humiliating, degrading and a burden for others.According to his hospital report, his fall resulted in neck hyperextension and immediate tetraplegia. An MRI scan showed a severe stenosis of the vertebral canal with signs of spinal cord injury from c3 to C5. It was unclear, he said, whether he would be able to walk again "or whether I'll ever be able to hold a pen." He was speaking these words through Isabella, who was slowly typing them into her iPad.' p.15.
shattered | SHATTERED |
| SHATTERED |
'A hospital is the place from which modesty and dignity disappear, desert you, seemingly forever, as soon as you cross the threshold. Kureishi, a reliably sexy, unrestricted writer, presents the physical deterioration and indignities he undergoes with his usual wit. The sense of vulnerability is crushing, but it is also one of the characteristics Kureishi reveals about himself that makes him so likable here, and the writing so intimate. The tone is remarkable: even the self-pity has no self-pity. One way he achieves this is by sprinkling punch lines throughout:
I woke up and started to cry. When you cry you must wipe away your tears, which is something I'm unable to do. So my eyes filled with bitter salty water and I got into a panic and thought I might lose my eyesight along with everything else. Finally, a kind nurse came into my room and downed me with a good dose of Lorazepam, then she touched me on my cheek and said, "It's not so bad, at least you're not in a coma."' pp.15-16.
The discovery of a reading group on philosophical counselling (PC), through University of Liverpool, continues to prove helpful; to utilise professional experience, that included counselling, family therapy, cognitive therapy in psychoses, and practical experience as a mental health nurse (in-patient and community). There is overlap with Hodges' model, but it's fascinating and rewarding to listen and learn from practitioners of PC. As noted before, I was aware of PC through two popular philosophy magazines. This time around we read:
Ran Lahav, “Philosophical Counseling and Self-Transformation,” in Philosophy, Counseling, and Psychotherapy, eds. Elliot D. Cohen & S. Samuel Zinaich, Jr. (Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2013), 82.
Abstract
This paper presents my approach to philosophical counseling, which is geared towards self-transformation, and is inspired by important thinkers throughout the history of Western philosophy whom I call transformational thinkers. I take from these thinkers the realization that our daily life is normally confined to rigid and superficial attitudes towards ourselves and our world. This is because individuals’ everyday attitudes are based on limited understandings of life, which form what I call the person’s perimeter, or perimetral worldview. The goal of philosophical counseling, as I see it, is to help counselees transcend their constricted perimetral worldview, or in the language of Plato – to realize that they are imprisoned in a “cave,” and then to step out of it towards a fuller reality. A case study is presented to illustrate the two main stages of the counseling process.
I know there is the (biblical) phrase 'Seek and you will find'; but there is also the notion of seeing only what you seek, and missing other content - contexts. This is marked in beliefs and the development of delusional ideas.
Of interest to me, Lahav discusses (as indicated above) a person’s perimeter, or perimetral worldview.
We still hear how difficult it is for people to access help. I wondered (again) about referral pathways for PC? The nature of the person's problems that prompts them to seek help? Lahav acknowledges the complexity here. Speaking of 'prompt', of course now there is AI in the mix. Lahav points out how PC does not quite have the foundation and hence theoretical impetus (and rigour?) that Freud provided to psychoanalysis and psychotherapy.
PC is, however, to some extent a broad field: '... philosophical practice has come to include several different formats in which it is practiced: one-time workshops for the general public, philosophical retreats, long-term self-reflection groups, the philosophical café, and of course philosophical counseling'.
I wonder if philosophical counsellor's could have a role, post AI / agentic ai interventions. This could provide a step-down assurance, and be rolled into 'treatment / intervention programmes'. This could help retain the humanistic element of duty of care, underscore the person_al in care architectures/systems and provide a step-down - just in-case AI has missed, or upset something? The acknowledged strength of AI in not being subjective is balanced. Although evidence also points to misogynistic responses derived through what can be biased, and prejudiced learning sources: thus a reflection of 'society'.
In the introduction, more encouragement with reference to situated, a general map, and basic - fundamental aspects. There are (at least) two domains: 'the domain of philosophical discourse and the domain of everyday life and predicaments'.
Hodges' model was created to facilitate the FIRST approach in PC, the Critical Thinking Approach, with an associated subtype of Problem-Solving Approach.
It was also designed to help with the theory-practice gap. Lahav describes this in the how and what of philosophy and PC itself. I wondered to what extent if the approach of PC 'leave out the more important “what” of great philosophies.' then would a counselee be denied avenues to learning, as we may be drawn to specific philosophical schools of thought, and crucially reasoning?
The SECOND approach to PC is the Edification Approach. The author has adopted this second approach in practice.
Guess what? Yes, you've got it. Hodges' model can actually close a circle here. Or, more accurately help sustain the reflective, reflexive, recursive ... reasoning loop as needed. Another objective of Hodges' model is to produce reflective practitioners, critical thinkers and lifelong learners.
A take-away for me is the 'perimeter and the perimetral worldview'. A search for 'perimeter' here on W2tQ is null.^ I'm also wondering about transformation (in the title) and throughout the paper.
There may be an example here were a domain of Hodges' model can itself reflect the model, as in the Intra- Interpersonal domain below.
Lahav employs a case study to illustrate his thought and practice. The discussion really helped improve my reading and understanding of this.
Psychology | Philosophy(-isms) | basic - fundamental |
case study | referral pathways |
THOUGHT
EDUCATION
DESIGN
THOUGHT Cognitive maps Your - Sense of direction? | Maps DESIGN 'True South' |
EDUCATION for All | Maps - Power Our - |
Previously: 'thought' : 'education' : 'design' : 'cognitive map'
My source: https://x.com/NobelPrize/status/2098073718371262921?s=20 and @TED_ED
'I think my favourite story to work on has been the 434 dinosaurs that are in the tapestry. So much has changed about what we know about dinosaurs and all because the study of fossils and dinosaurs has grown up alongside geological survey for mining and petroleum drilling. Studies say dinosaurs were much more colourful than originally imagined and many were feathered, and in fact birds are their distant relatives. Only 50 years ago we were taught that oil was made from decomposed dinosaurs and plants. Today research suggests oil formed from aquatic algae, called diatoms. Much more than half of all life on earth died in a mass extinction at the end of the Cretaceous period. The most agreed upon theory, based on research, suggests the cause was when an asteroid collided with the earth and triggered volcanic eruptions, that disrupted weather patterns, growing seasons and ecosystems. This one-two punch killed off the majority of Earth’s flora and fauna, including the dinosaurs, all of which were unable to adapt to the changes in climate.' |
The Black Gold Tapestry | ||
My source: Sandra Sawatzky, Oil in a Material World, Resurgence & Ecologist, Nov/Dec 2022, Issue 335, pp.52-55.
See also: https://www.theblackgoldtapestry.com/
Previously: 'Canada' : 'environment' : 'activism'
Intima: A Journal of Narrative Medicine is a literary journal dedicated to promoting the theory and practice of narrative medicine, an interdisciplinary field that enhances healthcare through the effective communication, empathy and understanding between clinicians, caregivers and patients. Our name Intima has a specific resonance in the field: For us, narrative involves the intimate interface between people, who yield and gain from the experience of stories involving the clinical encounter.
The word itself has an anatomical reality: intima is the thin layer lining a blood vessel, speeding blood to the heart and brain, an apt analogy for the kind of narratives we publish that speak to the emotions and the intellect, the feelings and facts that engage the senses in stories with meaning and impact..
.webp) Intima, Fall 2013 | |
Art - https://www.theintima.org/missionandvison also reminded of Escher and Byte Magazine.
My source: Intima list
Previously: 'creativity' : 'crossroads' : 'narrative'
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Du Sautoy, M. (2024). Blueprints: How mathematics shapes creativity. Glasgow: 4th Estate.
https://www.4thestate.co.uk/products/blueprints-how-mathematics-shapes-creativity-marcus-du-sautoy-9780008685034/
Book covers c/o Waterstones (Du Sautoy) and Verso Books.
My source https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/philosophy/philos-l/ (Beggs et al.) and various.
Previously: 'creativity' : 'socialism' : 'politics'
Coverage plans are ready for NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope prelaunch and launch activities. Roman is NASA’s next-generation observatory designed to explore some of the universe’s biggest mysteries, including dark energy. NASA and SpaceX are targeting Roman’s liftoff for no earlier than 7:26 a.m. EDT Sunday, Aug. 30, aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from Launch Complex 39A at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Launch coverage begins at 6:20 a.m. Live coverage of these events will stream through a variety of platforms. Learn where to watch online:
| education for ALL life chances Nancy Grace | STEMM |
| ROMAN Girls - Women in Science | Political investment in Science for Public and Planetary Good |
See also:
https://science.nasa.gov/mission/roman-space-telescope/
Previously: 'women' : 'astronomy' : 'big picture'
'We now come to the input of mathematics into medical history, and to the related questions of arithmetic and quantification, ratio and proportion, geometrical argument and diagrams, and probability. Mathematics (consisting in arithmetic, geometry, astrology and music) had an established place in the quadrivium of the medieval arts course; its application to medicine is demonstrated in such textbooks as the Articella, which include treatises on weights and measures, and in studies of proportion and ratio such as those of the medieval Oxford calculators which Italian doctors among others caused to be revived at the beginning of our period. In the sixteenth century, it was a vigorously debated subject; there is a well-documented discussion of the certainty of mathematics, concerning its status in respect to the logical adequacy of its proofs, in which some natural philosophers and doctors (notably Cardano) take part. It will come therefore as no surprise that it was prescribed for doctors by most Renaissance pedagogical writers; this prescription is often specifically linked to Galen's geometrical (axiomatic) method whose operations are the constitution of objects from elements, the comparison of existing objects and their reduction into their constitutive elements.
Associated with mathematics are diagrams, that is, abstract quantified spatial representations. There is a modern debate about the contribution of technical innovations in illustration in the Renaissance (most notably perspective) to the scientific revolution: this is only relevant here insofar as some participants in this debate argue for the importance of diagrammatic symbolisation of mental abstractions above those, like perspective, which are still representations of the real world, and see the former as a step on the path to full algebraic notation of geometry. Not all Renaissance thinkers were persuaded of their usefulness: Argenterio describes the diagrams of Manardo and Akakia reproduced below as 'vain and false tables and figures'; but I shall argue here that they were related to the uptake of doctors from the arts course insofar as well-known logical diagrams reproduced above (4.3:3) were adapted by them for their own purposes.' pp.171-172.
Maclean, Ian. 2002. Chapter 5, Beyond logic: geometry, proportion, quantity. In Logic, Signs, and Nature in the Renaissance: The Case of Learned Medicine. Cambridge/New York: Cambridge University Press.
Related to ongoing reading, Maclean provides two (among several) historical illustrations (with apologies for the quality) on pp.174-175, the first is from the Wellcome Collection:
Dubois,
Jacques, 1478-1555 (Boe͏̈, Jacques, Bois, J. d., Boë, J., del, Boë, J.,
Del Boë, J., DelBoe͏̈, J., . . . Sylvius/de Bois). (1548). Methodus
sex librorum galeni in differentiis et causis morborum et symptomatum
in tabellas sex ordine suo conjecta paulo fusius ne brevitas obscura
lectorem remoretur & fallat. de signis omnibus medicis, hoc est
salubribus, insalubribus, & neutris, commentarius / ... per jacobum
sylvium ..Paris: Retrieved from https://www.proquest.com/books/methodus-sex-librorum-galeni-differentiis-et/docview/2090356749/se-2
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| Jacobus Sylvius, 1539 |
Which Maclean then translates / interprets (p.174):
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| Maclean. Figure 5.1, p.174. |
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| Figure 5.2 Giovanni Manardo, p.175. |
quality | quantity symptoms - signs |
| objective |
Last month I was struck reading John Burn-Murdoch's regular opinion piece 'Data Points' in the FTWeekend.
This one 'What's really going on with mental health around the world?' concerned a report:
Henking, C. and Baumberg Geiger, B. (2026), 'Population mental health in
England, 2003–2022: Teasing apart psychological distress, mental
illness and activity limitations'. ESRC Centre for Society and Mental
Health, King's College London.
https://osf.io/preprints/socarxiv/8ygrz_v2
Below I have mapped some points to Hodges' model and added others.
By accident or not, Mr Burn-Murdoch continued this theme last weekend, discussing pandemic lockdowns and how they never ended for some people (citations below):
| Getting fixed with a physique, posture - shaped by technology. Convenience (POLITICAL) of binary responses, e.g. Search for 'answers' - diagnosis Search for 'solutions' interventions |
Early effect of lack of external play, risk-taking with others, friends - testing - trust. Lack of 'real' socialisation - meeting peers. Socio-Political Power, hence resort to 'sick role'. Social media - contribution to self-diagnosis. Support inc. Social prescribing: "You're not listening! How dare you suggest walking, gardening, volunteering, discussion group .. as a way to deal with this!" | 'It's life - get on with it!' The compound effect of 'World News' on young people: cost of living; housing; cost of/access to education; employment options - related to AI; geopolitical events; climate change, state of economics since birth; COVID; housing; and isolation. ^Parity of esteem (see above) Welfare traps - Realisation of the importance of outdoors play. Streets being protected for children. Early Start Nursery |
Imagine four characters called Harlequin meet for dinner. Halfway through another Harlequin gatecrashes the party, called spirit, then add psychiatry, anti-psychiatry, psychology, service users, policy-makers, the pharma-industry and education to the guest list and you are set for a marvellous time.
My source: John Burn-Murdoch, What's really going on with mental health around the world? FTWeekend, 11-12 July 2026, p.10.
John Burn-Murdoch, Pandemic lockdowns never ended for some people. FTWeekend, 15-16 August 2026, p.8.
Previously: 'young people' : 'mental illness' : 'behaviour' : 'Serres'
This prompt from yesterday is far from new. There are outlines for papers on W2tQ.
Seriously though, what would a book outline look like - now?
The introduction is probably already written, it just needs to be pulled-together. But, in truth it (desperately) needs a new perspective. The question of how to update the explanation - short of running a workshop? The model's original purposes 1-4 are a statement of fact. The intro figures that invariably show how the axes 'create' the model's care, or knowledge domains? What if...? Could we also present the inverse? That would be a new slant. Does the model still 'work'?
Details aside, here is a quick outline:
Introduction and Background
1.1 Brian E. Hodges and Post-Registration Nurse Education
1.2 Peter Jones - Primed to mind-map
1.3 Web presence: Initial website 1998-2015 - Blog 'Welcome to the QUAD' 2006 ...
1.4 Brian's original lecture notes
1.5 Looking back and forward: Models of care for the 21st Century
1.6 Confessions: So, where is the new site / platform?
The Four (Five) Care Domains
2.1 Science
2.2 Interpersonal (& Intrapersonal)
2.3 Sociology
2.4 Political
2.5 Spiritual
Hodges' model in Practice - Applications
3.1 Self care
3.2 Clinical
3.3 Social Care - Community
3.4 Management
3.5 Informatics
3.6 Policy
3.7 Education
3.8 Workforce: Local - Global
4.1 Person-centredness
4.2 Integrated Care
4.3 Holistic Care
4.4 Parity of Esteem
4.5 The Theory-Practice Gap
4.6 Change - Transformation: When? Disease to Prevention
It's Tomorrow Now
5.1 Health Promotion
5.2 Public (Mental) Health & Protection
5.3 Citizenship
5.4 Global Health
5.5 Planetary Health
Research
6.1 Hodges' model as a Research Tool
6.2 Climate change
6.3 Planetary Health
6.4 Beyond the Bio-Psycho-Social Model: The Political Domain
6.5 The Literacies
6.6 InterDisciplinary, Multi- and Transdisciplinary
6.7 Hodges' model as a Mathematical Object?
...?
Much to add, revise ... 'Education as Part X'. Political and Literacy too - a specific part - and with AI (in every part!)?
STOP!!
OK. It's a minefield. Even a proposal is a 'non-trivial' task.
Who's writing this? Not me! Not all of it, and for me; not AI either.
It would be marvellous to be one of several editors: one day?
Clearly, a great project for students and early career researchers and current practitioners.
An inoculation to help new cohorts deal with the realities, ravages and rewards of 'care' in its entirety*.
P.S. With the start of a title right there? PJ
The second R&E piece 'spoke' immediately of distance, peoples - their societies, culture, heritage and communities, plus place and connection to land, landscape, water, fauna, flora and sky.
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| Place and Planet |
Wooltorton, Sandra, Collard, Len, Horwitz, Pierre, Poelina, Anne & Palmer, David. (2020). Sharing a place-based indigenous methodology and learnings. Environmental Education Research. 26. 1-18. 10.1080/13504622.2020.1773407.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13504622.2020.1773407.
My source: Wooltorton et al. (2020) 'Becoming family with place'. Resurgence & Ecology, Issue 322. 2020. pp.34-35.
See also:
Jones, P. (2008) Exploring Serres’ Atlas, Hodges’ Knowledge Domains and the Fusion of Informatics and Cultural Horizons, IN Kidd, T., Chen, I. (Eds.) Social Information Technology Connecting Society and Cultural Issues, Idea Group Publishing, Inc. Chap. 7, pp. 96-109.
Hayward, B.A. (2020), Mental health nursing in bushfire‐affected communities: An autoethnographic insight. Int J Mental Health Nurs. doi:10.1111/inm.12765
Previously: 'Australia' : 'Indigenous' : 'South' : 'landscape'
At the beginning of this year, the Taliban issued a decree effectively
legalising domestic violence by allowing husbands to punish their wives.
And in May, another decree removed minimum age protections for marriage and made it harder for women to leave a spouse. This has increased the risk of forced and child marriage.
This is not just a loss of rights. It is the systematic
erasure of women and girls from public life.
Five years on from the Taliban takeover and the
exclusion of women and girls is being normalised.
| Visibility |
Gender apartheid | State sanctioned abuse
|
Previously: 'Afghanistan' : 'women' : 'girls'
See also 8th Sept. The Last Free Women: A Daring Escape from Afghanistan and Coming of Age in America. Blumenstein & Kapp. Hardcover, 368 pages. Grand Central Publishing. ISBN: 9781538779002
Between
the new and full moon the terminator - the line demarcating what is lit from what is dark changes all the
time. This is imperceptible with the naked eye. | A telescope at low magnification reveals the moon in all its glory. At a higher power with manual control you have to keep moving to keep up, as the moon other-worldly slides out of view. |
What of the terminator between poverty and wealth; ultrapoverty and ultrawealthy? | It is plain to see and so - easy to deny; but their instruments are hopeless, they watch indoors, fixed on their screens. |
Total Solar Eclipse – August 12, 2026
See also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terminator_(solar)
Previously: 'terminator'
|
... they will miss out on the life-affirming experience of the playing field. |
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... as they prepare to make their way in the [un-] level playing field. |
'Brandes quit the music business a few years ago, after a very successful career. Why? "Digital formats were taking over the record industry, which was giving away entire repertoires to companies like Apple with a completely idiotic accounting system in the background, which would never, ever allow for the artists to get properly remunerated for their rights. The whole industry thought that digital would be the biggest portion of whipped cream on top of the cake that they would continue to be eating until the end of all time.'"
Instead, inspired by a 1993 study that found that listening to classical music-specifically Mozart-enhances spatial-temporal reasoning, and by Don Campbell's bestselling 1997 book The Mozart Effect: Tapping the Power of Music to Heal the Body, Strengthen the Mind, and Unlock the Creative Spirit. Brandes studied psychology at university and then, funded by the Austrian Ministry of Culture, established the Research Program for Music-Medicine at the Paracelsus Medical University in Salzburg. "Being a music producer, I dreamt about doing scientific research on the effect of music and trying to figure out what effects music has on us - cognitive, emotional, whatever," she says. "Since then I have developed a method to use music to help people with chronic depression."
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An update from Helen Undy OBE - Chief Executive of Money and Mental Health.
Marking a full decade since we were founded, we've put together a short film summarising who we are, what we do, how we put lived experience at the heart of our work and our impact so far.
We're particularly grateful to the members of our Research Community - Suzanne, Rob and Catherine - for giving up their time to appear in this film.
If you're interested, please watch below. And please do feel free to share with friends or colleagues who might be interested in learning more about our work.
Mental health | ||
Money |
The Global Self-Care Federation (GSCF) is putting the spotlight on the benefits of self-care ahead of and beyond WHO’s Self-Care Month (June 24th – July 24th) and International Self-Care Day July 24th – two key annual advocacy milestones.
GSCF’s 2022 International Self-Care Day campaign builds on the #SelfCarePromise theme, encouraging everyone to make and share their personal commitment to embrace a specific self-care action. This year, we are specifically focusing on the topic of resilience.Self-care is any action that an individual takes to look after their own health, based on the knowledge and information available to them. This practice can also occur in collaboration with healthcare professionals when needed. Actively managing your own health and well-being through self-care has numerous benefits, including better choice between healthcare options, better care for individual wellbeing and better value for governments and health systems worldwide.
Continued ...
SELF-CARE Self Advocacy | Physical self-care Personal resilience Evidence-based interventions Disease prevention Diagnostics, Drugs, Devices, Integrated into Care |
| Knowledge & Information Access Learning opportunities Universal Health Coverage Approp. Policy frameworks Improved care outcomes Advocacy representation WHO and agencies |
"What is it with all this | |
... what I want is for those with the power, to keep the planet cool." |
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| Brian E. Hodges - c/o Brian's family. |
Born in Liverpool, NW England, UK.
Community Mental Health Nurse NHS, Part-time Lecturer,
Researcher Nursing & Technology Enhanced Learning
Registered Nurse - Mental Health & General
Community Psychiatric Nursing (Cert.) MMU
PG Cert. Ed.
BA(Joint Hons.) Computing and Philosophy - BIHE - Bolton
PG(Dip.) Collaboration on Psychosocial Education [COPE] Univ. Man.
MRES. e-Research and Technology Enhanced Learning, Lancaster Univ.
Live and work in NW England - seeking a global perspective.
The views expressed on W2tQ are entirely my own, unless stated otherwise.
Comments are disabled.
If you would like to get in touch please e-mail me at
h2cmng AT yahoo.co.uk
orcid.org/0000-0002-0192-8965
